We are proud to announce that Heba Khamis joins NOOR
From her series “Banned Beauty”
Egyptian visual researcher Heba Khamis' work concentrates on the sensitive, tabooed, social issues related to the body. In 2018 and 2019, her projects were awarded at the World Press Photo prize. Her work has been recognised as well with other international awards including the PHMuseum grant and the Ian Parry Scholarship award.
After graduating with a bachelor in painting, Heba Khamis had a career shift and worked as a photojournalist, covering the two revolutions in Egypt and it's aftermath. Currently, she is working on the topics of breast ironing in Cameroon, and transgenders in Egypt. Her latest series "Black Bird" uncovers stories of gay prostitution among straight refugees in Germany.
Through developing her storytelling visual language, she considers herself as a visual researcher after having working as a photojournalist, documentary photographer, and now as a storyteller. She carries the ethics of traditional documentary form with her, but believes the need to care further about the subjects while telling their stories. Beyond her usual photographic approach, she adds different elements and mediums belonging to the subjects to her stories.
Recently, she has been interested in art therapy, where she would like to involve the protagonists more, giving them the chance to express themselves and interact in telling their own story, by adding their drawings alongside her photographs.
Heba Khamis is based between Alexandria, Egypt and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
From her series “Black Birds”
On joining the collective, Heba Khamis shares: "After many years of walking in this world and industry independently, today I am glad to part of a team of 18 individuals from all over the globe (14 photographers and 4 office staff) with different perspectives on life, to walk in hand with. We follow the same passion for storytelling and ethics . By joining the NOOR family, I believe we will inspire and feed from each other, deepening our understanding in telling meaningful stories. We will help each other to reach out and tell people’s stories that need to be told, and to share them with all those waiting to hear."
"It is a great pride that Heba joins NOOR. Her work, in addition to being visually fascinating, fills us with deep compassion for others. Her respectful approach is important and necessary. With Heba joining our collective supports further our mission and our will to tell, witness, and document issues of our time," shares NOOR Managing Director Clement Saccomani.
NOOR Author Tanya Habjouqa shares: "I had been following the work of Heba Khamis for years, with a curiosity for who this photographer was who seamlessly blended poetics and some of the more darker aspects of socio-politics and humanity. The work was brilliant, no doubt, but what took me even more aback was listening to her speech when she received her first World Press Photo award for Banned Beauty.
"She, of course, referenced to girls and women who let her into their lives so intimately, but mentioned her recently deceased father, reflecting how to make quality work , it can come at a personal cost. She had not made it back in time from on assignment to say a proper good by to her father before he passed. There was not a dry eye in the place, and Heba has that affect. In person, and in her work. A kindness and soulful quiet. That rare breed of humble. And then she did it again, a consecutive World Press Photo…from diverse locations that are not close to her home or reality, but again…so intimately and respectfully she captures it.
"She is not a one trick pony—but will continue to surprise and evolve and question our medium. And elevate the bar for all of us. An honor to have Heba in our NOOR Family."