critics-01 | Reem Al Faisal

Reem Al Faisal Al Saud

Laetitia Guillemin

“Light not only enables us to see, it enables us to think.”
Henri Alekan, Des lumières et des ombres1

Black and white, shadow and light, darkness and brightness all find an echo in Reem Al Faisal Al Saud’s images. A muffled sound, an outspoken whisper:in each image half-lights tell a story, carry away the voices of inner silence. A string of light adorns the dome of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. The arabesques, shot from a zenithal low angle, extend the central calligraphy of the dome in a sort of visual rhyme. Wrapped in a blanket made of shadow, a verse of light sweeps the image away and takes us to a unique universe. Touches of light, stained glass and lanterns are brought together, intertwining like a serpent, echoing the poetry of the verse. This photograph is a perfect introduction to what Reem Al Faisal Al Saud reveals about her photographic practice: “My greatest inspiration is undoubtedly Arab poetry and the rich imagery it contains. I am interested in photography because it can condense complex philosophical and existentialist ideas into a single image or a series of images. Photography is a modern form of poetry.” We find this visual poetry in many images; it stems from the secret of the shadows. Fine black lines cut across an image in a wide shot. From the top of the basilica to the slightly curved edge of the stained-glass windows, these verticals fall like heavy rain, like a reverse metaphor for the sun’s rays. Here again, the image opens a path between the subdued atmosphere of a place of worship and the inner journey.

Making images with a camera is a singular encounter with the world. The eye is a thread that connects the outside and the inside. The camera translates this step, as described by Merleau-Ponty in his essay “Eye and Mind”: “The eye accomplishes the prodigious work of opening the soul to what is not soul – the joyous realm of things and their god, the sun. … Through [vision] we touch the sun and the stars, we are everywhere at once, and … even our power to imagine ourselves elsewhere … borrows from vision.”² The image passes through the closed space of the camera and is reflected in the mirror of the inner world. Reem Al Faisal Al Saud’s photographs translate this hidden dimension and power of imagination. See how lights and shadows come together, how the photographic space is built up: these are characteristic elements of her visual approach. Photography makes way for fantasy, insofar as the artist shares with us only a portion of reality – her reality. Thus, she gives the onlooker time to travel through it to make the image his own desired image. Somehow, photography could be the psyche of our selves. Hence, she opens the way to reverie, offering the viewer the opportunity to identify with her, to tell his story through her pictures. Quoting Paul Claudel’s beautiful title,³ we can say that Reem Al Faisal Al Saud’s eye listens. With modesty, she notices, captures and translates precious secret moments without ever damaging the moment of concentration she is recording. The prayer photos, whether taken in Istanbul, Turkey, or in Fujairah, UAE, manage to immediately stop time and let us slip into timelessness. Light comes through the stained-glass windows of the Blue Mosque and delicately envelops men in prayer, inviting contemplation. “Alternating between light and darkness generates feelings related to the importance of contrasts, density, the areas in the shadow sversus areas in broad light. The dark spots provide visual rest, the light ones grab our attention. This visual music modulates the space. … It creates emotion.”⁴

The musicality described here by Henri Alekan seems to take shape in this image, the light acts as a filter to dialogue silently with the men bending to the divine. The shadow preserves them from the tangible, keeping at its heart the secret of their faith. Likewise, a woman dimly lit by the faint light from a window seems to engage in private prayer. In this photograph, Reem Al Faisal Al Saud makes the silent power of meditation shine through. All the beauty of the images rests on subtle exchanges between light and darkness. These values intermingle, the fluidity of the light and the transparency of the shadow translating the inexpressible sound of meditation. Some spiritual magic happens in these places of worship. critics28

“Black and white is metaphysical. It gives you the metaphysical side of art. People can get distracted by color and forget about the image itself, but a black-and-white photograph forces the people to focus on the image,” Reem Al Faisal Al Saud explained in an interview.⁵ This metaphysical aspect is also visible thanks to the timeless nature of black and white. The absence of colour creates distance to the viewer. The depth of the blacks expresses the ineffable resonance of the soul. Colour could not have expressed this intimate and secret gesture. In fact, these prayer photos express Reem Al Faisal Al Saud’s feelings: “the prodigious work of opening thesoul”,⁶ the life being lived in the pictures. Here emotion is photographed, as with this man seen from behind. His graceful gesture, the folds of his shirt, the aerial shadows, the curves of the alcove: all these elements echo the solitude of the man and his piety. In comparison, we are struck by the clarity of the images from the pilgrimage, where men and women are all dressed in white, thus translating the radiance of faith. Darkness is for contemplation; brightness is for the journey to the Holy Land. Each time, respect is the essence.

critics29 Reem Al Faisal Al Saud finds inspiration in nature, in what the soul conceals between heaven and earth. She then recreates in her photos a world of her own, a world she can share. This impressionistic dimension is also present in her landscape pictures. The views of Fujairah are reverse images of the enclosed universe of prayer. Space unfolds. Some photos are built on a simple but assertive basis. Horizons are low, the omnipresent sky recalls the divine presence. As in the images of places of worship, a touch of light sometimes appears; the sun, the moon or a simple street lamp shows up discreetly. The blacks are softer and more subtle. The mosque in the Ras al-Khaimah area rises majestically in the middle of nature, like a jewellery box between heaven and earth (see p. 24). The gentleness emanating from this picture calls to mind the impressionist hues of Gustave Le Gray’s landscapes.

The notion of landscape refers to the philosophical conceptions of the human being within the world, of finitude versus infinity. Moreover, the land stretching in front of our eyes makes us more aware of ourselves. When we contemplate a landscape, time freezes and gives way to meditation. The photographed space is projected within us and reveals not only the splendours of nature, but also our floating souls. “Dreams come before contemplation. Before becoming a conscious sight, every landscape is an oneiric experience. Only those scenes that have already appeared in dreams can be viewed with an aesthetic passion. … But the oneiric landscape is not a frame that is filled up with impressions; it is a pervading substance.”⁷ According to Gaston Bachelard, the landscape’s oneirism awakens the matter, and in this materiality of the landscape lies the image we make from it.

Reem Al Faisal Al Saud’s palette of greys draws the contours of a dreamy landscape. These subtle shades, neither totally black nor deeply white, give the landscape a pictorial quality close to that of a drawing. In this poetic in-between, the contemplation of the landscape awakens complex sensations, the whole range of perceptions we keep inside us. The soothing silence of the place, the sharpened roughness of the mountains, the bubbling confusion of the palm trees, the delicate smell of the sand, the airy delicacy of the clouds: all of these remind us that we are alive.

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From its very beginnings the art of light par excellence, photography constructs a visual world that expresses itself between two extremes: black and white. “To me, black and white is the highest level of photography, and it gives you depth and symbolism that don’t exist [with colour pictures]. … It has a deeper philosophy which is that life itself has degrees of grey.”⁸ In Reem Al Faisal Al Saud’s images, these characteristics of black and white translate our relationship to the world: between dusk and dawn, the photographer’s eye gives us food for thought.

(Translated from the French by Aurélie Lacouchie)

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Henri Alekan, Des lumières et des ombres (édition F, 1984), 13: “La lumière donne à voir, mais plus encore, elle donne à”
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, “Eye and Mind”, tr. Carleton Dallery, rev. Michael B. Smith, in The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader, Galen A. Johnson, ed. (Northwestern University Press, 1993), 146. French original: Maurice Merleau-Ponty, L’oeil et l’esprit, 1964, Folio essais (Gallimard, 1994), 83: “L’oeil accomplit le prodige d’ouvrir à l’âme ce qui n’est pas âme, le bienheureux domaine des choses, et leur dieu, le soleil. [Par la vision] nous touchons le soleil, les étoiles, nous sommes en même temps partout, aussi près des lointains que des choses proches, et que même notre pouvoir de nous imaginer ailleurs.”
Paul Claudel, The Eye Listens, tr. Elise Pell (Philosophical Library, 1950). French original: L’oeil écoute (Gallimard, 1946).
Alekan, Des lumières, 268: “Ces passages de la pénombre à la lumière, ces alternances de clarté et d’obscurité engendrent des sentiments liés à l’importance des contrastes, à la densité et à la surface des zones d’ombres par rapport aux zones claires. Les sombres ménagent le repos visuel, les claires captent l’attention. Cette musique visuelle module l’espace. … Elle est créatrice d’é”
Siraj Wahab, “Art Is Not a Luxury, Says Princess Reem”, Arab News (3 April 2006).
Merleau-Ponty, “Eye and Mind”.
Gaston Bachelard, Water and Dreams, tr. Edith Farrell (Dallas Institute of Humanities & Culture, 1994), 4. French original: Gaston Bachelard, L’eau et les rêves, 1942 (Le Livre de Poche, 1994), 11: “On rêve avant de contempler. Avant d’être un spectacle tout paysage est On ne regarde avec une passion esthétique que les paysages qu’on a d’abord vu en rêve. … Mais le paysage onirique, n’est pas un cadre qui se remplit d’impressions, c’est une matière qui foisonne … emprunte encore à la vision.”
Jumana Al Tamimi, “Saudi Princess Reem Al Faisal Makes Photography Her Career”, Gulf News (1 April 2013).