Sometimes it feels like there are two sides of us, constantly at war. One wants to be saved and is fighting for freedom and release, and one wants to stay down, and drag everything with it. Because it’s easy, because it’s safe, because the pain is familiar. Because it’s constant. That dark, self-deprecating, self-loathing side…
If you’ve ever lived in the UAE, you know how the transition from winter to summer can be. Or not really. No one ever knows because it’s so random and unpredictable. It could be all sunshine and butterflies one day, and stormy the next. And the sandstorms.. Oh, the sandstorms. I love them. I don’t…
This blog post is mainly going to be about what’s been going on in my life lately and what I’ve been working on. The past few weeks have been.. quiet. I’m starting a few projects (still in the brainstorming phase) and doing a lot of research and reading. I mentioned a while ago that I…
Back in February, I got to meet an incredible photographer I’ve been following for a while on Instagram on Facebook and eventually became friends with. Mila came to Dubai for a couple of days on vacation and I was super excited when she told me! I knew we had to go shoot together. We had…
“We all have monsters. If you ignore them, they get bigger. You have to tame them and make them your bitches.” – Sara Lando The very first blog post I ever posted was about GPP2014, and it’s crazy to think that it’s been a year already. So much has happened in that one year. Some…
Hi, my name is Amani, I deal with depression on a daily basis and I think about suicide at least once a day. For the longest time, I felt like a fake. There are people who can’t get out of bed, who can’t function, who can’t even eat, because of how bad their depression is. And I’m…
A few days ago I watching one of Brooke Shaden’s promoting passion videos where she took a bunch of studio lights out into the forest for a shoot. She talked about trying out different and new things, and failing. It made me realize that there’s no shame in failing and it’s one of the best…
When I was in university, I took two literature courses with one of the most amazing professors I’d ever known. I remember once, I stayed behind to talk to him about a paper I’d written and after we discussed it and I was heading out, he stopped me and asked “what’s your major?”, and I…
I initially wanted to write a blog post only about a project I’m involved in, called Restart The Art, but I just finished working on my new picture for the 52 Week Project and I felt like the picture works well with the idea of the project. Restart The Art is an amazing idea by…
I’ve been super excited to share this with you guys! Last week’s theme for the 52 week project was mythology. I considered doing something based on mermaids for just a few seconds but then I decided I really wanted a dragon in my picture! I wasn’t sure how to make it happen, but then I contacted…
Amani AlShaali 