In October 2020, Tasweer announced the open call for applications to this annual grant award and formed a jury with Sheikha Sara Al-Thani (Sheikh Saoud Al Thani Awards); Sueraya Shaheen (photographer and editor); and Kristine Khouri (independent researcher) and Sheikha Shaikha Al-Thani (Qatar Photographic Society), along with Tasweer’s Artistic Director Charlotte Cotton, Director Khalifa Ahmad Al Obaidly and Senior Curator Maryam Hassan Al-Thani. They reviewed applicants’ proposals and held meetings in January 2021 before selecting six awardees – Hayat Ahmed Al Sharif, Mohammed El Shamy, Mona Hassan, Rula Halawani, Samar Sayer Baiomy, Shaima Al-Tamimi.
This exhibition (24 March – 30 May 2021) introduces the winners of the 2021 Sheikh Saoud Al Thani Project Award and is hosted in partnership with Qatar Foundation.
“ Hayat’s images are at once brave and engaging. She captures the humanity amongst the suffering she sees before her. But she does so with a sense of dignity to her vulnerable subjects. She transports us and it is heartbreaking. She wants a change, she wants to help. The camera is her tool – bearing witness, and it is a start. ”
“ Hayat Ahmed Yahya Alsharif’s images provide an intimate look into the life of people, especially women, in Yemen today. The country is facing what the UN has named, 'the worst humanitarian crisis of our time', and through her photographs, the stories and struggles of everyday life are brought to the fore, compelling the viewer to dig deeper to understand and react to the crisis. ”
“ Mohammed ElShamy is a photographer who bears witness to the historic movement of nations and their calls for change. He captures the moments he has lived through and experienced. From his point of view, the passion of the photographer and how he takes personal risks at the frontline are manifest. He is there, quietly, in the aftermath, portraying the dispersal of survivors, and the impact of the upheavals of our world. It is crucial that photographers show us what is happens in Arab countries and capture truth with an artist’s frame. ”
“ We follow Mona Hassan, as she follows her subjects. We discover as she does – nomadic tribes and a simpler lifestyle that we could ever imagine. She will show us images that are taken in harsh circumstances of a harsh reality. Let’s see where she will take us next and teach us more. ”
“ Rula Halawani is an exceptional artist who has continually navigated and examined the consequences of occupation upon the cultural narratives and contested land of her native Palestine. I am incredibly excited to see how Rula Halawani will grow the second “chapter” of her For You Mother body of work. This recently started project summons Halawani’s personal history and the meaning of wildflowers in Palestine. Beauty and resilience – disappearance and regrowth – are undoubtedly the narrative "seeds" that Rula Halawani is nurturing. ”
“ Samar’s project is one of the amazing projects that captivates my eyes and mind. It is such a deep journey, with all the details of the area and the people who have lived in the place called El Max in Alexandria. Between the sweet water from the Nile and the salt water from the Mediterranean where they meet in El Max, she brings so much to the surface – the old village demolished, only its memory stays in the minds of its people. This is an important document that narrates the stories of this community. ”
“ Shaima Al-Tamimi is a remarkable visual storyteller who brings us into close and deep proximity to her family’s migratory identity and ancestral memories. The profound significance of photographs as material holders of histories, heritages, relationships – both loving and painful – is the foundations from which she creatively works. Her articulate movement from photography and film, and investigations with mixed reality technology gives us multilayered experiences that reconstruct and animate cultural memory. ”