A while back, I wrote a blog post about depression and the stigma that surrounds it in the UAE (and lots of Arab countries). I’ve been thinking about it a lot especially because I haven’t exactly been doing so well. I was debating whether or not I should talk about this, for the same reasons I mentioned…
I cannot believe I’ve neglected my blog for an entire month; my life’s been kinda hectic. I was in Germany for about two weeks, and a day after I got back I got a really bad cold for almost a week. But now I’m back! And I just finished a new image that I’m super excited…
I always have a bunch of ideas written down for pictures that I want to do, but there are days when I feel like I desperately need to go shoot something and all my ideas either need too much preparation or I’m just not excited about them. I stopped doing spontaneous shoots a long time…
It feels like I’ve been waiting forever to share this image. This is probably the one I’m most excited about because I’ve dreamed of it for ages. It’s one of the ideas I have in my book that I kept putting off, I’m not sure why. I never got less excited about the idea, I…
“If you define yourself by what other people think of you and their opinions, you can come undone. You can give up your whole passion or dream – just one person’s opinion.” Joel Grimes A few weeks ago, someone told me something that I haven’t been able to get off my mind. I was having…
I began dreaming or sinking, most nights they meant the same thing. Every now and then, I come across songs that make me tremble. I’m a music fanatic. I find solace in music and I find inspiration in music and I think it’s one of the most beautiful things ever. Sometimes it’s the lyrics, sometimes…
I mentioned in my last blog post that I did a couple of shoots with my friend Natalia. After we shot some portraits, we started doing more conceptual work. We got to create an image that I dreamed about for a long time, inspired by a music video I saw when I was around 12 or…
Read more On shooting Natalia: Seven Days A Week of Truth and Fantasy
Last Friday, I did the biggest shoot I’ve ever done. I worked with a model called Natalia Wiechowski and a makeup artist called Heba El Kaissy Abd and we shot from 12PM till 7PM. Sounds crazy doesn’t it? Here’s the backstory: During GPP2015, Natalia was one of the models for the workshops and she was photographed…
“Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.” – Mark Twain During GPP2015, I met Nitin, a member of EPyC (one of the biggest photography clubs in Dubai) through a mutual friend. Nitin saw my work and invited me to give a talk during one of the club’s Creative Sparks…
I promise this isn’t new age hippie talk XD Just bear with me. Lemme start from the beginning: The last two weeks have been.. odd, to say the least. Almost every single shoot I’ve done this month failed. This is one of the times where I have a bunch of ideas that I want to try…
Read more On why I’m starting to believe in The Law of Attraction
Amani AlShaali 