1st Dubai Frame, 2026

International Salon of Photography

UAE


2026-01
2026-1085
2026/165
2026/A102
2026-P111
Calendar
Closing

days

hours

min

sec

Closing: 20 Feb, 2026
Judging: 20 Mar, 2026
Publish Results: 27 Mar, 2026
Send EDAS: 21 Apr, 2026
Online Gallery: 10 Apr, 2026
Publish PDF Catalog: 21 May, 2026
Delivery Award: 21 May, 2026
About

Dubai is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the country's seven emirates. Founded in the 1800s as a fishing village, Dubai has emerged as a major center for regional and international trade since the early 20th century and early 21st centuries with a focus on tourism and luxury. It is the city with the second-most five-star hotels in the world and the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, which is 828 metres (2,717 ft) tall. It is a major global transport hub for passengers and cargo. Oil revenue helped accelerate the development of the city, which was already a major mercantile hub.

The 1st Dubai Frame International Photo Salon, 2026 is with the patronage of the Federation Internationale de l'Art Photographique (FIAP) 2026/165 and the recognition by the Photographic Society of America (PSA) 2026-1085, Abgineh Photography Studies Institute (APSI) 2026/A102 , the patronage of the International Society of Fine Art (ISFA) 2026-P111.

The salon will be conducted in accordance with the rules of the PSA, FIAP & ISFA. Acceptances obtained in this salon will be taken into account for ISFA, FIAP Distinctions and PSA Star Rating listings in the worldwide PSA Who’s Who of Photography.


Organizer:

International Society of Fine Art (ISFA)
United Arab Emirates (UAE)


Chairman:

Alireza Pourkhan, EFIAP/s

1. Open Monochrome (Only Monochrome) (PSA PID Monochrome)
2. Open Color (Only Color) (PSA PID Color)
3. Family Color (Only Color) (PSA PID Color)
4. Portrait Monochrome (Only Monochrome) (PSA PID Monochrome)
5. My City Color (Only Color) (PSA PID Color)
6. Landscape Color (Only Color) (PSA PID Color)
Each entrant may submit a maximum of (4) images in each of the (6) sections.

Monochrome images may not be entered in Color sections.

Total of 122 Awards!

Best Author Award: FIAP light Blue Badge

Best Club Award: eHM (PDF Honorable Mention Certificate)

20 Awards in Each Section:

FIAP Gold Medal

PSA Gold Medal

ISFA Gold Medal

ISFA Silver Medal

ISFA Bronze Medal

2 FIAP Ribbon

ISFA Ribbon

2 APSI e-HM

10 Salon e-HM

e-HM is Honorable Mention Certificates (PDF certificate). e-certificates will not be posted. Entrants are responsible for downloading and printing their e-certificates.


Target Acceptance Range
• The acceptance target range will be no more than 25% in each section.
• No image may receive more than one individual award in a section, but in circuits an image may receive an award in different salon sections. Only one award can be given to an entrant in any one section.
• For sections with more than 230 images, no more than 10% of the acceptances can receive medals/awards.

All awards include a free online gallery for 3 months on www.IsOfArt.com (medals up to 25 photos, others 15 photos)

Notice:
- The jury reserves the right to grant additional awards.
- The decision of the jury is final and irrevocable, complaints are not possible.
Certificate of Acceptance: PDF Catalogue & Certificate of Acceptance/Award is downloadable from the site.

Entry fee is mandatory for every participant.

Single Entrants:

  • 1-2 Sections: €19 EUR
  • 3-4 Sections: €23 EUR
  • 5-6 Sections: €25 EUR

Group/Club Entries - Discount Rates (% of Total Fee)

  • 4-8 Entrants: 5%
  • 9-12 Entrants: 10%
  • 13+ Entrants: 15%

Entry fee can be paid with PayPal through salon web site. Login your accout, go to ‘Photo Contests’ or ‘Upload’ page, use “Pay Entry Fee” button.


Entrants from countries such as Turkey that cannot pay via Paypal, can contact us to receive a special payment method for that country.

After registration, it is not possible to cancel participation in the contest or return the registration fee.

non payment of fees Entries for which no fee is received will not be judged.
Number: Maximum (4) photos per section
Size: Maximum Size: 2 Mb (2048 Kb)
Dimensions: maximum vertical side: 1080 px and Maximum Horizontal side: 1920 px
Border: DO NOT fill empty space with/or add large borders. Any borders should be no greater than 2 pixels wide.
File Format: All files must be submitted in JPEG format. It is recommended to use the RGB color space. Smaller photos are acceptable but will appear smaller on the screen and may take less score. Please check the size and dimensionsof all files before sending, files that do not match the rules will not be uploaded.
File Naming: Files must be renamed to the photo title when submitting an entry. However, the titles should appear on the entry form as you wish them to appear in the catalogue.
Photo Title: Each image must have a unique title. That unique title must be used for entry of that image or of an Identical Image into any and all PSA-Recognized and all our exhibitions. Titles must be 35 characters or fewer. No titles may be visible to the judges, and nothing in the image may identify the maker. Titles must not include file extensions such as .jpg or .jpeg (or any other camera capture filenames such as DSC_025), or words such as "untitled" or "no title". Titles can not consist solely of numbers.
All sections:
- Mr. Minh Nguyen (EFIAP/b, MPSA), USA
- Ms. Nuwair Alhajeri (EFIAP/s, GPU ZEUS, C IAAP), UAE
- Mr. Ebrahim Bahrami (EFIAP/b), Iran

Judging Method
• The judging will be done by remote online judging. An award session will be held on-line by the judges viewing the images together.
• The judges will be using color-calibrated monitors. Images will be displayed at exactly 100% of their resolution. That is - the images will not be enlarged beyond their native resolution.

PSA Rules for the Judging Process
• The exhibition will be conducted in accordance with the rules of the PSA.
• An entrant’s images will not be presented to the judges consecutively.
• An entrant’s four images will be distributed throughout four rounds of judging in that section.
• Distribution of images will be in the same round order as submitted by the entrant.
• At no stage will a judge be able to view all the entrant’s images together.
Entry is open to all photographers, amateur and professional.
Submission: Images and a completed entry form must be submitted on line using the exhibition website. Entrants MUST use only the English alphabet A-Z when submitting an entry. Don’t use special characters such as - _ ! ? & @ ....
Notice: When an entrant fills in the Entry Form to submit an entry, the entrant will see a feature to affirm he or she has read these Conditions of Entry when he or she fills out the entry form. If the entrant does not so affirm the entry will not be submitted.
Disputes: In any case of dispute regarding compliance with the Conditions of Entry, payment of fees or matters pertaining to an image (such as receipt, acceptance, compliance, score or award), the decision of the organizers and judges to accept your application (or not) will be final. Violations and perceived violations of the Conditions of Entry may be reported to the various accreditation bodies and may result in a declination of your application to have your images included in this and other exhibitions.
Entry Requirements: This event is open to anyone; however, an entry may be rejected when the Sponsor or the Event Organizers, in their reasonable discretion, believes the entry does not conform to event rules and these Conditions of Entry. Membership in any photographic organization or other is not required.

REQUIREMENTS
Image And Entry Requirements: This exhibition is open to anyone; however, an entry maybe rejected when the exhibition chair believes the entry does not conform to exhibition rules and these ES-COE. Membership in any photographic organization is not required.
Neither awards nor acceptances will be granted to any entrant who is on the PSA Penalties List for Ethics Violation. Entry fees are not refundable in these circumstances.
PSA Star Ratings: To receive proper star ratings credit from PSA, entrants must provide their names and country exactly the same way in each exhibition. Aliases are not permitted. Please contact PSA in the event of a name change or relocation to another country. Using one’s name differently in different exhibitions exposes the entrant to the risk that many of their acceptances may not be recognized in PSA Star records.
Reproduction: The entrant permits the sponsors to reproduce all or part of the entered material free of charge for publication and/or display in media related to the exhibition. This may include low resolution posting on a website. PSA may request specific permission from entrants to reproduce entered images in its educational materials. The terms of that permission will be mutually agreed upon between the entrant and PSA except in the circumstances where the entered image is found to breach the PSA Ethics Policy. In those circumstances, the image may be reproduced by PSA without the entrant’s further permission, for educational purposes, or to illustrate serious exhibition rule violations. For those reproductions, the entrant’s name will be withheld.
Entries will not be accepted from entrants who indicate that their images may not be reproduced in materials related to the exhibition. The exhibition assumes no liability of any misuse of copyright.
Re-use of accepted images: Any image that has been accepted in this exhibition, past or present, may not be entered again in the same division star ratings class in any future instances of this exhibition. It may, of course, be entered in any other PSA recognized exhibitions but must always have the same title. Re-titling in another language is not allowed.
Entry: An entry consists of up to and including four (4) images entered by a single entrant into the same section. The same image can receive no more than a total of twenty (20) acceptances (per star path). Identical or similar Images shall not be allowed in the same section or different sections of the same exhibition as determined by the judges or exhibition chair. Similar images are those which are practically equivalent, as defined on this page: https://psa-services.org/pdf/Practical-Equivalence.pdf  When a group of similar images is uploaded by the entrant, all similar images in all sections will be disqualified. Be advised: while similar images may be entered in different exhibitions, these images and acceptances may be disallowed by the separate review process associated with applications for stars, diamonds and galaxies. To avoid disappointment, do not enter images that are practically equivalent.
Titles: Each image must have a unique title that relates to the content of the image. That unique title must be used for entry of that image into any and all PSA-recognized exhibitions. Titles must be 35 characters or fewer. No titles may be visible to the judges, and nothing in the image may identify the entrant. Titles may not include file extensions such as .jpg or .jpeg (or any other camera capture file names such as IMG_xxxx). Titles may not consist of personal identifiers possibly augmented by a number; and may not include words such as “untitled” or “no title.” Titles may not consist solely of numbers unless those numbers are prominently contained within the image, such as a contestant number in a race. When entering titles, exhibitors may use Latin1 or Latin2 character sets (ISO-8859-1 or ISO-8859-2) which allow diacritical marks (é, ñ, ü, ą, ę, ś, etc). While text written in non-Latin writing systems (Hanzi, Cyrillic, Arabic, Devanagari, etc) might be accepted by exhibition software, this practice is discouraged because it may yield unpredictable results in galleries, catalogs and may be rejected in Star applications.
Color and Monochrome: Color and monochrome images from the same capture that share substantial pictorial content in common will be considered the same image and must be given the same title.
DATA PROTECTION
By entering this exhibition, you are explicitly consenting to the personal details you have supplied, including physical addresses and email addresses being held, processed and used by the exhibition chair for purposes associated with this exhibition. You also explicitly consent to such information being sent to organizations that have accorded official recognition, patronage or accreditation to this exhibition. You acknowledge, agree and accept that by entering this exhibition your participation status which includes your first and last name, name of the country used during registration at the exhibition, number of sections entered, and number of photos entered in those sections will be made public in a published status list, and that the results of your entry will be made public in the exhibition gallery and exhibition catalog. You also agree and accept the policy regarding non- compliance to the rules of PSA.
SUBJECT MATTER AND DEFINITIONS
PSA Image creation and ownership
In all sections of the exhibition, images must originate as photographs made by the entrant.
They may not incorporate identifiable images produced by anyone else (for example: clip art, replacement skies, or stock images). Images created in whole or in part by image creation software (frequently called ‘AI’ images) are not allowed. Editing or alteration of images is permitted within the limits specified in the relevant section definitions that are available here https://psa-photo.org/page/division-definitions Any person submitting or attempting to submit a totally AI generated image that does not begin with a light capture from the maker to any Photographic Society of America exhibition, social media, event, or publication, other than for editorial purposes, shall be prohibited from PSA for a period of from 3 years to Life.
FIAP Artificial Intelligence
Pictures created by artificial intelligence are not allowed in this salon! All parts of the image have to be photographed by the author who is holding the copyright of all works submitted. Offenders will be sanctioned for life
Statement on Subject Matter - applicable to all sections
The fundamental rule that must be observed at all times and applies to all sections offered in exhibitions with PSA recognition is that the welfare of living creatures is more important than any photograph. This means that practices such as baiting of subjects with a living creature and removal of birds from nests, for the purpose of obtaining a photograph, are highly unethical, and such photographs are not allowed in any exhibition with PSA recognition. Under no circumstances may a living creature be placed in a situation where it will be killed or injured for the purpose of obtaining a photograph. Images that show live creatures being fed to captive animals, birds or reptiles are not permitted under any circumstances.
There are also concerns about the use of aerial photography, using drones, helicopters, or low flying aircraft. These should not cause any interference with other individuals or animals which causes a disturbance in their normal activity or disrupts the way any individual or animal interacts with their environment. Entrants in PSA recognized exhibitions should comply with all relevant laws and regulations associated with aerial photography in the country in which the image was taken.

Entry into PSA recognized exhibitions is conditional on accepting the above policies. The images must comply with the division and section definitions listed on the PSA website and other conditions. Images that do not comply will be disqualified by the judges.


SPECIFIC RULES

  • Images accepted in previous Fine Shot salons, or images considered by the organizing committee to be substantially the same, are ineligible for entry in any of the sections.
  • Medals and Other Awards: Medals and ribbons will be sent by first-class mail by the date specified on the exhibition website. It is the entrant’s responsibility to ensure that the address they supply when entering the exhibition is a valid postal address. Failure to do so may result in awards not being delivered.
  • Email Address requirements: It is the entrant’s responsibility to ensure that they are readily contactable by the Salon Chair via their email address that is supplied when registering on the Salon website.
  • Warning: opting out of this exhibition’s email list before the salon catalogues are posted may result in the entrant not receiving important information about the salon.

AGREEMENT

    SUBMISSION OF AN ENTRY SIGNIFIES ACCEPTANCE OF THESE CONDITIONS

    PICTURES CREATED BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THIS SALON!

    It is reminded that all parts of the image have to be photographed by the author who is holding the copyright of all works submitted. Offenders will be sanctioned for life!


    We are listed with Photo Contest Deadlines”Wephotocontestinsider.com
SUBMISSION OF AN ENTRY SIGNIFIES ACCEPTANCE OF THESE CONDITIONS
Online PDF Catalog downloadable from the result page. 21 May, 2026

General

The family is one of the most fundamental human institutions, reflecting love, support, emotional bonds, and shared values. This section welcomes photographs that depict various aspects of family life — from warm interactions between parents and children to simple, intimate moments shared among family members, including the unique relationships between siblings.

Ultimately, the main subject of this section is the members of a family and their relationships, portrayed together in group compositions. These images may be taken in a studio, at home, on the street, in a restaurant, or any other setting. Both documentary and studio-style photographs are accepted

This section is typically a photograph that captures the presence of nature and may include sea/oceans/water/underwater.
It can have man-made features (e.g. city skylines) or disturbances of landscapes, with or without people on photography.
Representational landscapes (more natural and realistic), an impressionistic landscape or abstract landscape photographs are allowed.

Show us any aspect of any city, its people, traditions & culture, Street photography, city life & cityscape. By cityscape photograph (urban landscape) we mean a landscape photograph showing the physical aspects of a city or urban area. Only color images are allowed in this section.

A photograph of a person or group of people who are aware they are being photographed. (The portraits must be only of humans.)

FIAP

A black and white work fitting from the very dark grey (black) to the very clear grey (white) is a monochrome work with various shades of grey. A black and white work toned entirely in a single color will remain a monochrome work able to stand in the black and white category; such a work can be reproduced in black and white in the catalogue of a salon under FIAP Patronage. On the other hand, a black and white work modified by a partial toning or by the addition of one color becomes a color work (polychrome) to stand in the color category; such a work requires color reproduction in the catalogue of a salon under FIAP Patronage.

PSA

An image is considered to be monochrome only if it gives the impression of having no color (i.e, contains only shades of gray which can include pure black and pure white) or it gives the
impression of being a grayscale image that has been toned in one color across the entire image (for example by sepia, red, gold, etc). A grayscale or multi-colored image modified or giving the impression of having been modified by partial toning, multi-toning or by the inclusion of spot coloring does not meet the definition of monochrome and shall be classified as a color work.

  • Monochrome images are not permitted in color sections of PPD or PID.
  • Grayscale Monochrome images may be entered for Nature, Photojournalism and Photo Travel, but toned images are not permitted for these sections.

The Image category for PID color must be a color image.  A greyscale or multi-colored image modified or giving the impression of having been modified by partial toning, multi toning or by the inclusion of spot color on a monochrome image is considered a Color Image.

Salon Chairman:

Alireza Pourkhan, EFIAP/s

E-mail: SupportISofArt.com
Last Update:01 Nov, 2025