With so many tall buildings in the UAE, lifts are an essential mode of transport – unless you really like stairs. How about as a subject for a photo, though? Andy Mills reports on new competition Uplifting Views.
Standing in an elevator is not always a rich experience. Besides saving your legs and lungs from potential collapse while tackling hundreds of flights of stairs, the beauty of an elevator is easily lost on us. The uncomfortable silences, feelings of nervousness as you head up past the 60th floor and the annoyance of being wedged next to another person’s sweaty armpit are all more common emotions.
But a new competition, Uplifting Views in the UAE, may just highlight some of the more impressive things you see in elevators throughout the region. Running until August 8, anybody with a camera can capture their experiences in any elevator, in any city in the UAE and the most creative will be selected to win prizes, including an all-inclusive hotel stay for two at the luxurious Jumeirah at Etihad Towers for the very best snap.
TOAD catches up with Noha Kadora, marketing and communications specialist at Kone (Middle East) LLC, the elevator company running the quirky competition, to find out more.
‘We had one of our colleagues in Holland do something similar to this competition and we wanted to deliver a campaign online that involved people more,’ says Kadora. ‘To take part, though, it doesn’t have to be from a Kone elevator, it’s really any view you can get from any building. We’re not looking for quality, we’re just looking for imagination, the story behind it.
They can be taken by a phone camera or a professional camera, it’s open to anyone, just so long as we can see what’s in the picture.’
The competition has been running since July 10 and there have already been a number of entries, with over two thousand ‘likes’ on their Facebook page. Some are already proving to be more memorable than others. Kadora recalls one image taken in a mall’s glass elevator that combines children playing around and adults drinking coffee, but believes people could have even more fun with it. ‘Use your creativity rather than taking it too seriously to win the prize. Who knows, the simple snap could win, if we find it very interesting,’ adds Kadora. ‘There are no limits whatsoever, we’ve even had a few pictures of animals. One entrant actually had a turtle in it, but unfortunately it was too blurry to really see.’
So while the entries don’t have to be of professional quality, clarity is still important. After all, there’s no point having a photograph that doesn’t clearly show what the subject of the picture is. If you fancy having
a go, there’s still time to enter before the early August deadline. Who knows, next time you’re in a lift perhaps a picture with your camera phone might just scoop you a luxurious break for two.
Entries can be made via the website www.kone.com, or you can find more details on the Facebook page www.facebook.com/KonePhotoContestUpliftingViewsInTheUae.
Hot shots
Stuck for inspirational elevators to snap? TOAD staff put their heads together and reckon these fantastic lifts could be good starting points.
• Mushrif Mall
A lift housed in an aquarium could ‘scale’ new heights.
• Fairmont Bab Al Bahr
The huge glass window gives new perspective on the beach from the lobby.
• Dusit Thani
Panoramic views all the way up to the 37th floor.
• Jumeirah at Etihad Towers
Opulent marble and mirrors make a stunning backdrop.
• Sky Tower, Reem Island
Quick transit to the 74th floor.
Elevator trivia
• UltraRope, developed by Kone, is a new advancement that could allow elevators to travel up to 1km high, roughly twice the current maximum height. Carbon fibre replaces steel in the elevator cables, making them both lighter and stronger.
• Betty Lou Oliver holds the record for the longest, survived elevator fall ever recorded. The Empire State Building (New York) lift attendant plummeted 75 stories and lived to tell the tale, returning to work just five months later.
• Apparently, the Otis Elevator Company carries the equivalent of the world’s population in its lifts every five days.
• Elevators are statistically safer than escalators. There are 20 times more elevators than escalators but only one third more accidents.
• Elevators existed as far back as ancient Rome, with Archimedes building them in 336BC. Gladiators and animals were riding elevators up to the Colosseum arena as early as 80AD.
• In 2014 a new elevator that Mitsubishi is set to install in the Shanghai Tower should be the world’s fastest lift with a speed of 64.8km/h
