IN PICS | Stellar smartphone photography: winning shots from Huawei Xmage Awards - TimesLIVE

Huawei is known for innovations that take smartphone photography to the next level.

This is evident in the incredible images produced by the winners of its annual global mobile photography competition, the Huawei Xmage Awards (formerly the Huawei Next-Image Awards).

In 2026, the competition marks a decade since its launch.

To celebrate, Huawei once again teamed up with Paris Photo — one of the world’s most influential photographic art fairs — to announce this year’s winners and present a special 10th anniversary exhibition highlighting the link between photography, technology, and storytelling.

“Over the past decade, we have grown alongside global creators, building an open, diverse, and heartwarming global community where people and stories connect through images,” said Alex Huang He, CMO of Huawei Consumer Business Group.

A staggering 820,000 entries — all shot on Huawei mobile devices — were received from around the globe for this year’s Huawei Xmage Awards.

A professional judging panel whittled these down to the ‘Xmage 100′, a shortlist of 100 outstanding works falling into three categories: Order and Precision (technical), Time and Reflection (ideological) and Aesthetics and Resonance (artistic).

From these, three grand prize winners were ultimately selected: Ali Abdul Hamid Alarbash, Mai Shunxi and Wan Ben. Each will receive an Xmage creation fund of $10,000 (approximately R166,000).

(Ali Abdul Hamid Alarbash) (Ali Abdul Hamid Alarbash) (Ali Abdul Hamid Alarbash) (Ali Abdul Hamid Alarbash) (Ali Abdul Hamid Alarbash) (Ali Abdul Hamid Alarbash) Alarbash captured a series of remarkable images of the French capital.

“Together, the photos form a portrait of Paris that employs the existing light to startling effect and tell a story, demonstrating masterful photographic skills,” said the judges.

(Mai Shunxi) As city dwellers navigate the rush of daily life, Shunxi shot this mesmerising portrait of a young woman.

“The girl’s gaze causes a gentle flutter in one’s heart. One cannot help but wonder: What is she looking at, and what is she thinking?” commented the judges.

The photograph also promoted them to reflect on the question: “In a lifetime, how many people do we truly encounter?”

They praised the winner for capturing a “fleeting moment of connection [that] forms a precious bond in the vast ocean of people”.

(Wan Ben) Ben’s striking landscape also had the judges feeling profound.

“The highland carved stones and the airplane’s vapour trail create a striking visual contrast: one eternal, the other fleeting,” they said.

“The ancient stone carvings represent the slow accumulation of civilisation, while the vapour trail symbolises the rapid pace of modern development.

“As ancient heritage and modern civilisation intersect more frequently, whether mobile photography can unlock a grand, poetic power ultimately comes down to the photographer’s vision.”

Titled A Heartwarming World, the 2026 Huawei Xmage exhibition at Paris Photo invites visitors to look beyond the images on display and discover the human stories and emotional connections behind them.

Featuring three zones — Seeing Nature, Seeing the Works, and Seeing Each Other — it explores the theme Lives entwined, all things connected.

A special fourth zone is dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Huawei Xmage Awards. Taking visitors on a journey through time, it brings together photographs, camera components and accompanying text to showcase some of the most memorable works and camera modules from the past decade.

Together, these displays provide a glimpse into 10 years of shared growth between people and technology, shining a spotlight on Huawei’s continued focus on imaging technology innovation, and the role photography plays in capturing human experiences.

‘A Heartwarming World’ is open at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, until November 15.

This article was sponsored by Huawei.