Middle Eastern identity seen like never before. An exploration of youth and fashion. Candid intimacy and beautiful styling is brought to the fore.
Cheb Moha is a young stylist, designer and photographer living on and off in the Emirati metropolis. Born in Iraq, he moved to Canada at the age of 12. Having left Canada in 2014 to wander between Kuwait, Oman, Dubai and other parts of the gulf, he has been producing work surrounding his acute understanding of Middle Eastern experiences of social class, misrepresentation and refuge.
His style has secured him projects with brands such as Vans and The Hundreds. However, his aim is to create work that will support the region. It was a goal for Cheb to move back to the Middle East as he felt strongly about rediscovering his roots.
Currently in Dubai, he works on his personal photography, styling and art direction projects as well as brand consultation. The diverse creative has had his fingers in various creative expressions from designing ensembles for musicians to styling commercials.
The models for his work are often his friends. They regard the work that they create together as their form of reality-infused expression and believe that it assists in defining an authentic picture of Middle Eastern identity. “That traditional ideology about what Arabs should do, what we should wear, and how we should act — it’s all changing. It’s a good time for creatives who want to express themselves, because it’s still new,” he expresses in an interview with The Fader.
Cheb states that there has been complete misrepresentation of the area for the last 30 years. He has also emphasised that people from the region have not been producing creative work as they have moved out of their countries due to conflict. However, people are returning to their homelands and in the creative sector he shares, there is a lot of love and support for one another’s practices. They push each other to excel as they see themselves solely responsible for the representation of the area and their cultures. His primary focus lies in presenting what he finds beautiful about his country and his people and not to show that which has been made to be controversial or exoticized.
Cheb and his friends are helping grow a more well-rounded understanding and perspective of what it means to be a young person in the Middle East today and are breaking down commonly held stereotypes of what people believe Arab people should dress like and be like. Sparking a revolution with intimate images made from the heart.
“A visual dissertation, a meditation on time, place, memory and personal history; amalgamating the passage through life and dreams, bridging philosophy, politics and prose. A reflection of my being in abstract form.” – Nkhensani Mkhari on his work.
A dreamy reality caked with attention-halting architectural shots, documentary images and glamorous fashion depictions come together to create the visual language of a budding artist. Nkhensani Mkhari is a young multi-disciplinary practitioner who grew up in Mabopane, township in the North of Pretoria. “I consider myself a hybrid artist,” he tells me. Completing his studies in Film and Television production at the Open Window Institute in 2016, he traverses between directing films, script writing, photography, art direction and music.
Editorial with Ilaphulam for Inga Madibyi (2018)
His childhood was spent around a hum of creativity with his father practicing as a landscape artist and his mother as a Setswana teacher. Nkhensani shares with me that his mother’s vocation acted as an introduction to language and narrative. “I’ve had an affinity for storytelling and aesthetic for as long as I can remember. Cognizance of how concepts and ideas can affect society drove me towards wanting to participate in the creative field.”
‘Portraits for consolation’ (4) with Buyani Duma
Non-linear, acoustic, literary and artistic attentiveness attracted him to his chosen mediums of expression. “Growing up in the internet age assisted in idealizing and realizing my artistic vision. I always felt like we live in a multidimensional universe, which is also part of a multidimensional infinite consciousness we call God or the universe or nkulu nkulu or creation. We are multidimensional actualities. Therefore, I feel like my work should be multidimensional if it is to have a remarkable influence on human freedom. I make art in the hope that it will call me and the audience to a deeper awareness of living itself.” An interest in Afro Futurism was explored with his final film during his studies. The premise of the motion picture was that of software that alters human beings’ consciousness and is used by the government to indoctrinate citizens. Since graduation, he has been occupying himself with the writing of an African feature-length film. To add to his merits, the passionate creative self-published a photobook ‘grain’ Volume 1 and a conceptual EP, ‘23′ that he describes to me as a personal interpretation of science fiction soundscapes – released under the pseudonym, Ndzilo Xiluva.
Project Mayhem (1) in collaboration with Bambatha Jones (2017)
“I’ve also been busy shooting an array of photo series, portraits, editorials and experimental films themed on a range of subjects from mythology to Artificial Intelligence, I’m fascinated by the prospect of these ideas and how they influence society especially African communities.” The photographic side of Nkhensani can only be described as one of calculated risk. Utilizing manual, vintage Japanese film cameras and countless rolls of film as his visual narrative tools. “I come up with titles and captions from conversations, reading books or watching movies, certain words and phrases stand out. These titles usually form the centrifuge for my conceptual photographs like fashion editorials and commercial work, I’ll research the etymology of the word or the origin of the phrase or word and create a mood board from that. With my fine art photography, it’s a more organic cathartic process based on intuition, the work is unscripted.”
His widespread influences include Pantsula culture, African Neo-expressionism, conceptual fashion, Jean Michel Basquiat, Zanele Muholi, FAKA, Frank Ocean and Claude Monet, to name a few. Delving deeper Nkhensani shares with me the concept of his ongoing personal portrait series, ‘Portraits for Consolation’. It is focused on the idea of the “Gaze” and it confronts commonly held notions of beauty.
Essence editorial (4); (2017)
A preference for analogue photography is explained in his statement, “I like how skin tones, light and tone are rendered on emulsions. I like the simplicity of the technology, the mechanics, chemistry and the historical aspect. I like seeing photographs develop in a seemingly magical way in the darkroom, it’s an enthralling process I feel like films limitations have been advantageous in developing my eye.” From my own experience, I tend to agree with Nkhensani; nothing develops your eye, technical skill and understanding of lighting combinations quite like the unknown world of an image caught on film, only to be reviewed after development.
Nkhensani, like many young content creators, chooses not to box himself into a specific field of photographic study. “I don’t think photography is fissiparous. I shoot from an artistic eye whether it’s fashion, documentary or fine arts.”
‘Portraits for consolation’ (7)
Nkhensani’s sound technical understanding of his gear, his unique focus on titles, the etymology of words as well as an uncanny ability to traverse a multitude of photographic disciplines shows not only skill but talent. The artist has another ability, that which is perhaps the most difficult to cultivate – Nkhensani is a psychologist. To be a photographer means to have an innate understanding of the human psyche. The intimacy recorded in his technically excellent images is a clear signifier of his ability to relate to the models in his unforgettable images. His experience orientated work is hoped to take on a more holistic nature in the coming year. Keep an eye out for him, he’s taken my cognitive consciousness by a storm. On another note, I want a print of one of his images on a t-shirt.
‘Portraits of consolation’ (5)‘Untitled Theory’ (1); (2017)‘Between distance and time’ (2017)
The Seppis is a collective consisting of married couple, Seemaa Allie and Taariq September. The Cape Town based collective toil together in art direction, styling and photography. Their imagery and practice creates an aesthetic verging on unease and unconventional beauty.
The Seppis was molded 11 years ago when Allie and Taariq started collaborating together during their dating phase. They started working under the brand, The Seppis about 3 years ago when the two creatives ventured into freelancing. In Allie’s words, “We are all about creating whether it be stills or videos. We are passionate about collaborating and learning as we go.”
Having collaborated with Dope Saint Jude, Slabofmisuse, Simon Deporres, Mehnaaz Maleta and others, The Seppis are as involved in the production, photography, art direction and styling as a job brief allows. Allie states that in their practice they choose to have input in all aspects of the projects they are involved in.
As a collective they largely create their own projects or collaborate with other creatives on projects that they have been a part of since their inception. “I think the major drawing card for us with regard to projects is the possibility of working with other creatives we respect and admire. The other elements that come into play is if the project has ‘meat’; by this I mean substance and is it relevant” – Seemaa Allie.
Art directing their lives knowingly from a young age, photography was an art form they experimented with in their early years. It became their main medium of expression as they progressed in their artistic careers. The Seppis were trained within the realm of analogue photography and still practice it to some extent. They do however, shoot predominantly in a digital format at the current stage in their practice.
Allie tells me that the lighting choices they work with in their projects is dictated by the required mood of the shoot stipulated in the brief for each individual shoot. The Seppis focuses on creating evocative imagery as the final product of their creative expression. Within each individual project, they create continuity in their imagery, whether it be from the same series or project, or that from another projects entirely. Their focus or aim can be seen as the element that gives their imagery it’s signature look and feel.
The Seppis are hands on with the location scouting of the projects they take on, their choice being directed by their project brief. “Location plays a big role in getting your narrative across especially when it comes to stills so careful consideration is put into choosing the location. There have been occasions that we happen upon a location and the location forms the base or the kick off point for a concept.”
“We still have a very long list of people we would love to work with. We want to work, we want to create, we want to have kids, the future is bright and chaotic. Just the way we like it.”
