Single Saudi Women

I stumbled upon this photographic series by Wasma Mansour, a Saudi born LCC PhD Photography student. She has been working on the project for the past four years, meeting and documenting single Saudi Arabian ladies, who (mostly) live in the UK. 

“It’s incredible! The first thing people say when you mention Saudi women is the veil-unveil thing,” she says. “At first I thought it was depressing and annoying. Now I find it 
hilarious… and a bit lazy,” says Mansour.

Wasma says the subject is of her own interest. She says the single Saudi woman is to be "placed under two categories: she is either passive, docile and therefore in crisis, or defiant, rebellious and consequently liberated. The women I’ve met and photographed revealed a complex set of negotiations made to reconcile with their identities and assert their sense of individualism. My work interrogates these two polar existences by showing that the participants exist and function in a wide area between them." Mansour managed to explore the subject matter by giving the opportunity to discuss and reveal the participants' identities through their narratives, spaces and their things.

 
 

                       

                         

 

                                      

I think this is a very complex and quite personal but very open photography journal. To me, the subject matter is very intimate and subtle because it reveiles something I am very careful to think of and imagine, as Arabic women seem to be open mostly to their compatriots and this whole world of their stays unclear and blurred for an outsider. The project is supported by the fact it's about single women, something that, again, to me is very unstable as one would always imagine a strong and powerful man next to a fragile Arabian lady. Well done and keep going!

Wasma's website and this amazing tumblr workinprogress page , which I found very useful. Even the layout and the colour of the web pages feel and look Arabic, I really did get a Jeddah kind of feeling somehow. 

Eric Cahan

"My work is meant to capture a moment in nature, asking and empowering the viewer to be fully present, involved, and uplifted. I want the viewer to be drawn in, and be completely absorbed by, rather than separate from, that fleeting moment in time."

Eric Cahan is a NY- based photographer, who is mainly known for his beautiful sky series. Bits and pieces from his interview with the veine magazine:

<<The actual process is done with coloured resin filters I make myself and hold in front of the lens before I shoot a picture... I know the colours I am trying to conjure and choose the filter accordingly. >>

<<The way light behavesand interacts with the material of the sculptures depends entirely on their environment. if outdoors, earth and sky are visible through and filtered by their material, which is a polyester resin. If indoors, the resin will predominantely reflect the light around it, acting much like a prism.>>

<<I then print the work as many times as necessary so no blemishes appear and the viewer can be drawn in to the image, and to the moment I wanted to capture. >>

Eric is inspired by Imperessionists, Mark Rothko (which is very visible in his work, sometimes I could say it's the photographic hipster Rothko), and the Colour Theory, <<the science of how colours, tones and hues combine to create ... determinable results.>>

  Here is what he says in his interview with elephantjournal.com:

<<My works are titled as an archive to remind me of the experience, both physically and spiritually>> (this is wahy each of the photograph has a description: when and where it was taken).

<<To me, the sun is the ultimate source of light, so it only seemed natural to pursue that source. My photographs explore the magical light during a sunrise or a sunset.>>

Very gentle, hipster-coloured photographs, but I admire Eric in a way, it is quite a unique interpretation of 'keeping a record' of a physical and spiritual memory. Plus I'd never think the pictures are not Adobe-generated. He seems to be really dedicated to the subject. (boring)