Few artists embody emotion quite like Sudanese photographer Hashim Nasr. What began as a spontaneous urge to simply create for the dentist turned visual artist has evolved into the experimental photographer becoming one of the top emerging names in Cairo’s creative scene. Last year, the British Journal of Photography named him one of the “Photographers to Watch.”
Tackling themes of loss, fantasy and reality, Nasr’s striking and colourful works shed a light on the underlying emotions that arise from forced displacement due to war, which is a feeling the visual artist and photographer knows all too well. What initially began as a brief family holiday to Cairo in 2023 quickly turned sour from the sudden eruption of the Sudan war. “It has been two and a half years since I've been in Sudan, and I couldn't go back there since,” he says. “There’s an emotional weight that comes with displacement.” Crafting headpieces and surrealist landscapes to master an environment that feels as though you’ve stepped into a dream, Nasr’s work is all about crafting new worlds within the stark reality we are in.
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Can you talk us through your creative process?
In my photography, I always start with a feeling I want to translate. From there, I create objects, masks, and gather fabrics that can symbolically hold that meaning. The simplicity of the minimal gestures of my characters strips down the image so that the core idea is clear and strong.
With this concept of shielding faces through objects and the element of outdoor photography in mind, what does safety mean to you?
Initially, the intention behind covering the faces of my models was to shift attention away from their physical appearance and more towards the core idea I had of the photograph. Many of my models are my friends and family, with no experience being in front of the camera. Because of this, it also became a way to provide some comfort to the models.
In your own words, could you tell us the idea behind ‘On War and Displacement’, your latest photography series?
On War and Displacement is a surrealist exploration of how exile shapes our identity. I started this series after the eruption of Sudan’s ongoing war in April 2023. Through these staged characters, I explore the multifaceted emotions of memory, loss and the emotional weight that comes from displacement. My work doesn’t directly focus on the war but instead focuses on the sobering aftermath it has had on our people.
The project is now supported by AFAC through the Arab Documentary Photography Program, which will allow me to continue developing it.
As a Sudanese visual artist and photographer whose works previously featured his homeland, how have the last two years of war in Sudan affected your work?
The war has changed everything for me. It has forced me to confront displacement. And throughout these years, I've found that my photography has become a way to process this loss and also resist our erasure as Sudanese people. Looking back at these images, I realise that these photographs now live in between the imagined spaces I've created and the physical, real landscapes I've lost. I view it all through an almost trancelike state.
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Ultimately, what would you like your work to be remembered for?
I see my practice as both a form of self-expression and a source of discussion between myself and the community. Through both concrete memory and imagination, my hope is that my work opens up spaces of dialogue for those who are displaced or feel misrepresented.
To me, photography is not just about images but also about creating larger, newer worlds of imagination.
