Organizer: Soran Abdulla Naqshbandi

First and Second Annual Photography Competition/Exhibition of Caroun Photo Club (CPC) and Canadian association for Photographic Art (CAPA), which were held and exhibited in Tehran and Isfahan Cities of Iran, were exhibited in Sulaymania (Slemani) in Kurdistan, Iraq, thanks to Soran Abdulla Naqshbandi, member of CPC/CAPA.

"Galawezh Literary and Enlightened Minds Center" was our sponsor. Some of our members from Iran (Hana Kamkar, Afshin Shahroodi) have attended the Festival and help. Other members in Kurdistan as "Nashmil Ali Barzenj" and other artits has great role in our exhibition too.

CPC/CAPA thanks all the people as well as our sponsor, who helped to do such a great cultural activity in Sulaymania. Following you could visit a report by "Darya Ibrahim" and some photos of the Photography Exhibition and Festival.


The International Photographic Exhibition in Slemani was inaugurated by Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on 20 November.

The event was also attended by Mala Bakhtiar, Administrator of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s (PUK) politburo and Emad Ahmed, a member of the PUK’s politburo. The exhibition was a part of the Galawezh Literary Festival held in the Museum Hall of Slemani.

The exhibition comprised a total of 128 photos of 85 artists from 16 countries around the world, all of whom are members of the Caroun Photo Club (CPC).

Some 68 of the photos were sent by Iranian artists, mainly because the CPC’s Middle East office is in Iran, and it was easier for these artists to send their work to Slemani for exhibition, explained Soran Abdulla Naqshbandi, supervisor of the exhibition. Naqshbandi, who is a member of the Canadian Association for Photographic Art (CAPA), said that preparations for the event began two months ago, and they received financial support from the Galawezh Literary and Enlightened Minds Center.

At the opening, hundreds of Kurdish, Arab and Iranian artists were present, all of whom expressed their appreciation for such activities in the region.

“It’s the first time in Kurdistan and especially in Slemani, to stage an international exhibition for photographic art,” said Naqshbandi.

“It was gratifying for me when I heard from an international agency for photographic art that they were pleasantly surprised to find this caliber of photographic art here in the Kurdistan Region.”