Photo of the Week: Hashem Alsharif

Saudi artist Hashem Alsharif is a multidisciplinary photographer working in analogue photography and traditional printing, building a body of work rooted in identity, memory and the rhythms of Saudi heritage.

For this edition of Photo of the Week, Alsharif selected an image from his series 'Khubaiti', shot in a studio in Riyadh with tailored lighting and staging designed to catch the dancer suspended between motion and stillness - a visual echo of what it actually feels like to watch the dance unfold live. "The series explores ‘Khubaiti’ folklore not only as a dance performed in weddings and social events, but rather as a channel to transmit a feeling that is so energetic while maintaining a sense of pride and dignity," he says.

For Alsharif, the pull toward this subject goes back further than the studio session. "I have always been fascinated with the way we as humans think, and carry ourselves through the element of identity and culture," he explains. Originally from the western region of the Kingdom, where Khubaiti is a fixture of weddings and social life, he says he "wanted to dig deeper into a dance that has always fascinated me" - using the project to, in his words, "explore the depths of what distinguish different parts of our human collectives."

The series marked a continuation of an ongoing interest for Alsharif, following earlier work documenting semi-nomadic traditions like falconry and desert camping. Across his practice, he keeps circling back to the same underlying questions - how time passes, how memory lingers, and how both shape "the human consciousness" - using photography as one way of getting closer to his community and the ideas that run through it.