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Ala Kheir

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Ala Kheir
Born1 April, 1985
Nyala, Sudan
Known forDocumentary photography, street photography, motion picture photography
MovementAfrican photography
WebsiteKheir official webpage

Ala Kheir (Arabic: علاء خير, born 1 April, 1985) is a Sudanese photographer, cinematographer and mechanical engineer. He became known as one of the founders of the Sudanese Photographers Group in Khartoum in 2009 and through international exhibitions of his photographs, as well as for networking and training for photographers in Africa.

Biography and artistic career

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Portrait of Sudanese visual artist Amna Elhassan by Kheir, 2020

Kheir was born in Nyala, South Darfur, and moved to the capital Khartoum with his parents as a child. During summer holidays, he spent frequent visits in Nyala and as a photographer, he later took pictures of people's lives in the Marrah Mountains region.[1]

Kheir studied mechanical engineering in Malaysia and started as a self-taught photographer. Upon his return to Sudan, he and other photographers in Khartoum established the Sudanese Photographers Group. This group started taking photographs and teaching photography as a visual art form, including other aspiring photographers into their workshops and exhibitions.[2]

Kheir has been involved in networking and training for photographers in Africa, notably with the 'Centers of Learning for Photography in Africa' in Johannesburg, South Africa.[3] This network brings together African platforms active in photography education, where the members "exchange ideas and teaching methodologies and also learn as trainers."[2]

An example of such training and networking were a series of workshops and photo exhibitions in Khartoum between 2014 and 2016, titled 'Mugran Foto Week'. The exhibition of 2016 presented the collective results of a workshop called Modern Times, conducted the year before by photographers Michelle Lukidis from South Africa and André Lützen from Germany.[4] In 2024, Lützen published his own photographs in the photobook Khartoum – A Tale of Three Cities.[5]

For several years, Kheir served as a judge on the panel for the international Contemporary African Photography Prize (CAP) in Basel, Switzerland, "awarded annually to five photographers, whose works were created on the African continent, or which engage with the African diaspora."[6][7]

While engaged in an online conversation in October 2022 with Durham University Library Special Collections and the Photography Legacy Project (PLP), Kheir was arrested and harassed by Sudanese security police, presumably because he was suspected to be involved in citizens' protests.[8]

In April 2024, the news magazine The Continent reported how Kheir and his family were affected by the 2018 revolution and the 2023 war in Sudan. At the beginning of the revolution, he had moved his family from Khartoum to Cairo. Then, he went back to Sudan to photograph the anti-government movement in Khartoum and other cities. Further, he travelled to Darfur, the western region of Sudan his parents had come from, in order to research and document how people there had survived decades of conflict. After the outbreak of the war between the opposing military groups, food, water and electricity became scarce, and Kheir found himself threatened by soldiers who looked “more terrifying than the dead bodies” in the streets of the Khartoum region. Having survived a few weeks at his parents' place in Omdurman, he travelled on to Wad Madani, the second largest city in the country. Many other people had sought refuge in that city, and Kheir found himself a war photographer. Finally, he had to flee from Sudan to the United Arab Emirates, only able to communicate through the internet with his parents who stayed behind in Sudan, or with his wife and children in Egypt, that had effectively closed its borders to more Sudanese refugees.[9]

In the magazine article "Street Photography: A Glimpse into Khartoum Architecture and Urban Design", Kheir reflected on the nature of street photography as he knew it before the war:[10]

As a photographer, street photography has its unique joy, and the streets are the best place to link the human to the surrounding space resulting in an environmental portrait that tells the complete story. It is definitely a strong means to educate the public about our immediate environment.

— Ala Kheir, Sudanese photographer

Reception

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Kheir's photographs have been published by The Guardian, Brownbook magazine in Dubai, and the World Architecture Community.[11][12] In 2020, his work was featured among 17 contemporary African photographers in the book The Journey. New Positions in African Photography.[13] From 2008 to 2018, these African photographers had been invited by local German cultural centres of the Goethe-Institut to attend masterclasses, curated by Simon Njami and established African photographers, such as Akinbode Akinbiyi.[14] Along with other African photographers who were part of these masterclasses, a portrait of Kheir's work was published in the book The Journey - New positions in African photography.[15]

In the French book on 52 contemporary African artists Oh! AfricArt, Kheir and his photographs were featured as the only artist from Sudan.[16] For their 2022 contest, World Press Photo nominated Kheir as jury member from Africa.[17]

During the 2023 Sudan conflict, The Guardian published a feature article in their series "My best Shot" on one of Kheir's pictures of Khartoum and his personal approach to photography.[18] In the 2023 group exhibition Reframing Neglect in New York, Kheir was represented with pictures of people living on the outskirts of Khartoum and suffering from "neglected tropical diseases," which include leprosy, sleeping sickness and river blindness.[19]

Group and individual exhibitions

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  • Reframing Neglect, Milan, New York and Abu Dhabi, Italy, USA and United Arab Emirates 2022/2023[20]
  • Revisiting Khartoum, African Capitals, France 2017
  • Revisiting Khartoum, Dakar Biennale, Senegal 2016
  • Khartoum 2 Addis, Venice Biennale, Italy 2015
  • Africa, Big change, Big chance, Milan, Italy 2014
  • Invisible Borders, group exhibition, Addis Photo Festival, Ethiopia 2012
  • Khartoum (solo exhibition), Addis Photo Festival 2012
  • The Un-governables, group exhibition in New York 2012
  • Feel the color, Khartoum, 2009 (co-exhibition with Dia Khalil)
  • 50+1, Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 2007[21]

Awards

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  • Our Continent, Our Future photo competition, 2nd prize, 2013
  • Connect for Climate photo competition, 2nd prize, 2012
  • UN education photograph, 2010[21]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Ala Kheir's return to Darfur". The Photography Legacy Project (PLP). Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  2. ^ a b Diallo, Aïcha (29 October 2016). "Where the White Nile and the Blue Nile meet". Contemporary and. Archived from the original on 21 February 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
  3. ^ "Launch of the first phase of the 'Survey on photography training and learning initiatives on the African continent'". Contemporary and. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  4. ^ Goethe-Institut Sudan (24 November 2017). "Photo exhibition Modern Times – Mugran Foto Week 2016". Archived from the original on 24 November 2017. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  5. ^ "LFI | Stories | Life in Extreme Climate Zones". LFI-Leica Fotografie International, Hamburg, Germany. 17 January 2024. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  6. ^ "CAP Prize – International Prize for Contemporary African Photography". CAP Prize. 30 October 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  7. ^ "CAP Prize – International Prize for Contemporary African Photography – Panel of Judges". CAP Prize. 7 November 2022. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  8. ^ "Sudan Photographer and Archivist, Ala Kheir detained in Sudan". The Photography Legacy Project (PLP). Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  9. ^ Continent, The (20 April 2024). "Sudan: A fractured life in limbo". The Continent. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
  10. ^ Gaafar, Zainab (21 August 2017). "Street photography: a glimpse into Khartoum architecture and urban design". World Architecture Community. Archived from the original on 21 August 2017. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  11. ^ "Sudanese beauty queen demands end to Nuba mountain bombing". the Guardian. 7 July 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  12. ^ Kheir, Ala; Burns, John; Algrefwi, Ibrahim (5 February 2016). "The psychedelic world of Sudan's Sufis – in pictures". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  13. ^ "The Journey". KERBER VERLAG. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  14. ^ Iduma, Emmanuel (24 June 2021). "Post-Continental: Contemporary African Photography". www.artnews.com. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  15. ^ Njami Simon, Sean O'Toole, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Lucienne Bestall, Nicola Brandt, Frédérique Chapuis, John Fleetwood et al. (2019) The Journey. New Positions in African Photography. Bielefeld: Kerber Verlag. ISBN 978-3-73560-682-2, p. 200-209
  16. ^ Tchoungui, Elizabeth (2021). Oh! AfricArt (in French). Vanves: Hachette Livre – Editions du Chêne. pp. 188–191. ISBN 9782812321016.
  17. ^ "2022 World Press Photo Contest jury". www.worldpressphoto.org. Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  18. ^ Siddons, Edward (2 August 2023). "A tea shop in Khartoum before the bombs: Ala Kheir's best photograph". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  19. ^ "Sudanese photographer Ala Kheir looks to preserve memories of his homeland at a group show in New York". Arab News. 29 June 2023. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  20. ^ "Reframing Neglect Events Page". The END Fund. 8 December 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  21. ^ a b "African Photography Network – Ala Kheir". African Photography Network. Retrieved 17 January 2023.

Further reading

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