Still Life: Photography Exhibition at Somalia Art Foundation
Still Life is a contemporary photography exhibition capturing people and moments in Somalia. Both photographers in the exhibition, Fardowsa Hussein (b. 1995) and Hana Mire (b. 1990), are first film-makers and then photographers. Due to this, they both have a keen, intimate gaze with which they see the world through. The result? Luscious and personal images, as though they are stills from a film, dreamy and evocative. Through their sympathetic lens, we are able to experience the extraordinary, in ordinary daily scenes from around Somalia.
The exhibition is the brainchild of Sagal Ali, the director of the Somali Arts Foundation (Saf), which she launched in September 2020.
She says that photography in Somalia is considered a man’s trade “especially when it comes to street photography. Women are not expected to be outside documenting day-to-day life, in a place where most people are still busy simply surviving”.
“Creativity and culture have been decimated by more than 30 years of conflict in Somalia,” she says. “The aim of Saf is to revive it, to give people space to breathe.” She also wants to alter the way people are seen, and in this exhibition, she hopes to challenge the view that women cannot accomplish highly technical works of art. “I was attracted to the female gaze and the emotions the photos invoked in me. I don’t think these pictures could have been taken by men,” says Ali.
On a big white wall in a hotel compound hangs a series of calm, intimate portraits by two female Somali photographers.
“It’s important that women reclaim the public space,” one of the artists, Fardowsa Hussein, says.
She says that when she is filming on the streets, men often shout at her, telling her she should be indoors rather than embarrassing herself in public.
“I want it to become entirely normal for a woman like me to go out and about, filming and taking photos, without fear of harassment or worse.”
The photographers feel that for too long, Westerners have dominated the narrative on Somalia, presenting it as the world’s most dangerous country, torn apart by war, disease and famine.
They say they want to take control of Somalia’s story, to present a fuller, fairer portrayal of life in the country. (via BBC.com)
About the Authors
Fardowsa Hussein is a documentary photographer and her work ranges from covering humanitarian crises to everyday life in Somalia.
Hana Mire is currently directing and producing her first feature-length documentary.
About SAF
The Somali Arts Foundation (SAF) is the first contemporary art institution in Somalia. SAF seeks to promote and create conducive environments for the creative industries to flourish in Somalia, while leveraging the arts to ignite critical discourses around ideas on identity, memory, loss, healing and what it means to be a “Soomaali” person in the 21st Century.
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