“PROTEAN VISIONS” PHOTO LONDON 2023
This series holds a special place in my heart - Protean Visions was the first project I ever exhibited in London.
For years, I dreamed of being part of Photo London, one of the most prestigious photography fairs in the world. I remember walking through Somerset House during previous editions, imagining my works shimmering on those walls. When it finally happened, it felt almost unreal.
The opportunity came through Raghad Mardini, Director of Litehouse Gallery, who believed in my work and made this moment possible. Her gallery, known for representing Middle Eastern and Asian artists, became that tramplin taht pushed me into the art world.
Credit: Graham Carlow
Protean Visions is a metamorphic series of twelve images exploring the mutable nature of water and light.
The title refers to Proteus, the shapeshifting sea god from Greek mythology — a symbol of perpetual transformation. Water here becomes both subject and collaborator, an element that reflects and refracts reality until it dissolves into abstraction.
Through these photographs, I wanted to capture the moment where light choreographs across the surface of water — constantly reinventing form, just as memory and identity do within us. Water has no age; there is no “young” or “old” wave. To me, that timelessness mirrors the continuity of consciousness — a quiet meditation on change and endurance.
Transform
〰️
Transform 〰️
The series was made in intimate conditions, within a confined space filled with light and water. Each session felt like a small act of surrender. I had to work almost blindly — my camera sealed inside a protective case, unable to review the images until I resurfaced and dried the equipment.
My husband assisted me, patiently following my directions as I became both the subject and the director of the shoot. I didn’t dare ask anyone else to do what I was doing — holding my breath underwater again and again, surrounded by LED lights and mirrors, not knowing whether any of it would work.
The process was physically demanding, yet strangely meditative. I chased the instant when water, light, and emotion aligned — moments that could never be repeated. Each session carried its own palette and rhythm: some calm and translucent, others dense and feverish.
These works became my dialogue with transformation. They taught me to trust the element, to let go of control. In many ways, creating Protean Visions transformed me as much as the images themselves — it restored my confidence and reminded me that experimentation is its own kind of truth.
Standing at Somerset House during the opening of Photo London, surrounded by artists I had admired for years, I felt a quiet sense of arrival.
The reactions were as diverse as the images themselves — some viewers were instantly drawn in, captivated by the colour, fluidity, and surreal depth; others passed by indifferently, seeking black-and-white portraits or the comfort of traditional photography.
In that moment I realised that art, like water, finds its own viewers. It flows where it’s meant to go.
