Writing the Image

With With Redha Al Hammad and Dalia Mustafa

Ages 17+

In English and Arabic

Explore how text and image can work together to expand a photograph’s ability to tell a certain story.

Peruse a range of photobooks and publications, including selections from personal collections and the Photography Gallery Library. What kind of strategies are these examples using to combine words and images? What do you find most effective? Conclude with a writing exercise that responds to your own images. Using sensory prompts, develop short, free-form or poetic texts that shift the way the photographs can be read.

Designed for photographers, artists and creatives at all levels, this session is free and materials are provided.

Sharjah Art Foundation is committed to making its programmes inclusive and accessible. You can arrange for any support needed through the registration form.

For more information, email learning@sharjahart.org, or call (06) 544 4113.

About the artists:

Dalia Mustafa is a writer from Khartoum, Sudan, whose poetry explores themes of identity, collective memory and belonging. Part of a collaborative exhibition at Jameel Arts Centre, her latest work, Did You Not Yearn for Me?, investigates the body as a repository of memory, grief for the unfamiliar, and fear of an indeterminate future. She is a poetry editorial intern for Guernica and a student in the Literature and Creative Writing Program at New York University Abu Dhabi. 

Redha Al Hammad is a photographer and visual artist from Al Qatif, Saudi Arabia. Centring his narratives in his hometown, he grounds his work in oral histories and collective memories that weave together past and present. Many of his projects also explore how the passage of time  impacts social and cultural dynamics within the Gulf. He examines these relationships by pairing image-making with family archives, printmaking, writing and collaboration.