The photographer Abdo Shanan

How did you find your voice as an artist?

Actually in art I have found my voice as a human before the artist I am nowdays. Before I get into photography I had so much to say about the worldaround me, so many ideas from different perspectives, only I was too afraidto express myself out loud. I was afraid to say “NO” or to disagree. In art asin photography I have found my” No’s” and my revolts. Photography hasgiving me a voice. as I always say I speak four languages Arabic, English,French and photography in which photography is my strongest language.

Untitled (Oran), from the series Diary: Exile, 2014-2016, 40x60cm

What is your artistic singularity?

My work is strictly personal on the other hand I try to define a commonground between what is personal for me and the person looking at my work.I believe it is important to establish some kind of familiarity with my workso the viewer could react to it.

How does your origin country Algeria influence your work?

As tradition or culture, Algeria has no influence on my work. But as anenvironment it gives me the rage to work, as it is an environment that I cannot quite belong to or fully understand. This is what pushed me in “Diary:exile” to ask questions about my Identity and where do I belong. Now in mynew Project “Dry” I try to question the relation between humans and theenvironment where they live (or lived), how does it affect their Identity andhow they define “Home”.

Untitled (Oran), from the series Diary: Exile, 2014-2016, 60x40cm

Do you have a vision of what your artistic future could look like?

To produce books, a lot of them.

Can you tell us a little bit about ‘Untitled (Oran), from the series Diary:Exile, 2014-2016’?

The woman in the picture is my grandmother, at the beginning I havethought I was documenting her life as a person who suffers sever memoryloss, only later that I understood that I was creating a visual diary for what Ifelt to be my exile in Algeria. This picture became later part of my project “Diary: exile”.