About
When in 2008, I decided to pursue a PhD in (urban) sociology at the London School of Economics (LSE), I so much wanted it to be a visual investigation, despite lacking professional training in photography. I wanted to bring into visibility aspects of everyday life which were beyond the headlines. Although LSE is a traditional academic institution and does not offer practiced-based PhDs, my supervisor Professor Paul Gilroy is not and was not. Committed to the production of scientific knowledge but not compromising my passion and strong belief in the power of images, especially when embedded in a written text, and thanks to the generous support and great supervision I had from Professor Gilroy, I managed to produce a PhD which was simultaneously visual, ethnographic, theoretical and theorising.
My photographic practice is engaging and inquiring. It is about the everyday and the mundane, the human and the built-environment. It sheds light into the social, the cultural, the political and the spatial. I was the first to document the single mothers housing campaign in London, Focus E15, which became inspiring and gained national/international recognition. For ten years my photographic work remained largely private. It was only in late March (2018) that I had finally collated some of my photographs in a portfolio. I have previously exhibited at university, and my photographs have appeared in UN publications but my first debut photographic/art project is currently at Qalandia International (Palestine Art Biennale, Oct 2018).
I feel creative and buzzing with ideas. I feel that the camera is my theorising tool and lens which prompts me to pause, think, ask questions and understand my surroundings.