Welcome to bruneiONS.com

The Brunei Japan Friendship Association (BJFA) held a photographic competition themed 'Indah Nya Islam' - The Beauty of Islam. The theme brings a focus on the daily lifestyle of Muslims and their practices of the Islamic faith.  The competition brings together photographers from 2 countries to capture scenes of Islamic practices in 2 different cultures and landscapes.  The idea is to exchange photographic views of life of a Muslim in Japan and Brunei and to learn about each other's way of life while embracing their faith in different circumstances and backgrounds.

In Brunei, the competition was held during the month of March 2012 and the winners were announced and awarded deserving prizes during a photo-unveiling ceremony held on Friday 6th July, 2012 at the newly opened Matadoe Cafe and Boutique at the Airport Mall in Bandar Seri Begawan. The BJFA President, Yang Mulia Dato Paduka Hj Adnan Buntar gave the prizes to the winners and right after that, unveiled all the top ten winning entries together with the guest-of-honour His Excellency the Ambassador of Japan, Mr. Noriki Hirose.


The top prize entry and Hj Tajuddin Hj Sulaiman receiving his prize from Dato Paduka Hj Adnan Buntar.


Second and third prize entries

The first prize went to Hj Tejuddin Hj Sulaiman, who also won several other prizes in the top ten. Second prize winner was Mohammad Khairul Hafizan while in third place was Murni Awang Hj Mahali.   The first prize winner won a return air ticket to Japan during the holy month of Ramadhan this year with a photo assignment to capture the ethnic Japanese Muslim lifestyle during this period.  He will be accompanied by the Head of Communications for BJFA, Hj Mohd Yusof Hj Mohd Yassin, who is also the brains behind this photographic exchange program.


Other top ten winners - Mohammad Khairul Hafizan, Murni Awang Hj Mahali and Joseph Wong Siew Heng

Japanese photographers, in collaboration with the Muslim Society of Japan, will visit Brunei during the Hari Raya season for the same photographic challenge but with a mission to discover the Bruneian way of celebrating the Eid festivities.


Guests enjoying a spot of high tea after the ceremony

As a conclusion to this exchange program, selected photographs from the Brunei competition and those from the Japanese photographers will be on display at the BJFA Photography Exhibition at The Waterfront gallery during the October Creative Month later this year. The BJFA aims, with the assistance of the Brunei High Commission in Japan, to bring the exhibition to Tokyo next year during February 2013 in conjunction with the Brunei National Day.

 

In the meantime,  the top ten photographs will continue to be exhibited for the rest of the week till 13th July at the Matadoe Cafe and Boutique on Level 1 at the Airport Mall - open 10 a.m - 10 p.m daily.

Tweet