Ala Kheir
“I try to use photography with the aim of self-reflection, while enjoying the process and the difficulty to make a simple photograph that delivers a message …”
His work has been exhibited internationally, including Green April at the Kigali Photo festival (2019); The Periphery at the Lagos Photo Festival (2018); Collectivism, with Invisible Borders, FOAM, Amsterdam (2017); solo exhibitions of Revisiting Khartoum at African Capitals, Paris (2017) and Dak’Art Contemporary African Art Biennale, Dakar (2016); From Khartoum to Addis, Venice Biennale (2015); Africa Big Change Big Chance, Milan (2014); Invisible Borders, Addis Photo Festival (2012); a solo exhibition of Khartoum, Addis Photo Festival (2012); and The Un-governables, New York (2012).
Kheir is founder of the Other Vision photography platform, active in photography education, archiving and development in Sudan. Kheir’s work is a symbol for a country that has undergone huge crises and through his eyes we get to understand the country better and its history in these uncertain times of change and transition.
I consider myself a regular to many of these spots. When I am there, I have my own ideas and mind set and feelings and the intention to photograph. However, I often find myself also enjoying the experience of just being there witnessing moments, interactions, and the complex river-city relationship. These series of images are an attempt to record moments of interactions between myself, the space, and people.
In 2014, I have started my first photo narrative about Khartoum called “Revisiting khartoum” , where I visit familiar spaces in downtown Khartoum that I used to visit with my parents when I was a young boy. I photographed these spaces linking what I see now to how it felt 30 years ago. documenting the mixed emotions between then and now.
This was just the beginning as I am a wonderer, always in different places. I grew up in low class neighborhood which back then was the edge of the city and through out the years I changed homes moved into a different neighborhoods and different communities which I think gave me a very solid understanding of the complex rapidly expanding city.
Khartoum now is a mixture of different worlds, a low-built, sprawling city, with strange sprit depending on where you go, culturally divide but we people of Khartoum do not acknowledge that. And a lot more.
Khartoum is an untold story.