A quiet cartography of on a regular basis life in a distant village within the Sahara by London-based photographer Taha Al-izzi. Born in Amman to Kurdish-Iraqi mother and father who fled battle and repression, Al-izzi’s adolescence was marked by motion (from Iraq to Jordan to Toronto). His work continues as an act of wanting again towards echoes of id inside dislocation. That search led him to Khemliya, a small Gnawa neighborhood on the fringe of the Sahara. Descendants of enslaved West African peoples introduced throughout the Sahel, the challenge speaks to the spirit of survival—of being elsewhere and belonging nonetheless. Al-izzi’s photos unfold as a meditation on exile, mapping out a shared terrain between the pressured migrations of North Africa and the Kurdish diaspora. By portraits, fragments, subject notes and testimonies, Al-izzi seeks to unveil a broader sense of continuity and communion:
“Throughout a two-week sound residency organized by Mathias Chaboteaux (Huveshta Rituals Information) and music producer Louis Shungu, an ephemeral recording studio was constructed inside a mud home to seize the voices and devices of the village’s musicians. My intention was to translate their story by the lens, to painting a neighborhood whose music carries each reminiscence and resilience. The ensuing pictures type a part of a broader multidisciplinary challenge: a 16mm brief movie, a photograph e-book combining textual content and imagery, and a music album—all set to be exhibited throughout Europe alongside reside performances. This work stands as a tribute to individuals dwelling on the sting of desertification, whose ancestral information continues to unfold from older generations to the youthful ones.”
Taha Al-izzi participated in our 2025 Booooooom Artwork & Photograph Guide Award and made our shortlist.
