Lamya gargash

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“It had that divine feel. The somewhat eerie images pose questions about the need for renewal and inherent nomadism. “The process of learning and connecting, that is the work,” she says with feeling. No longer hidden from view as they undergo restoration, Gargash reframes them and chronicles their history in a personal and poetic manner whilst highlighting the remnants of human presence.

Gargash was selected to represent the UAE in its debut pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2009 where she showcased her Familial series.

Not physically, but emotionally, spiritually, culturally. Her commitment to film photography deepened this sensibility. Her exploration of that question took her to the Venice Biennale and Sharjah Biennale, where her works explored the layered, shifting identity of the UAE and the unseen narratives of everyday life. “I love the manual part, being one with the space.”

Through film, she found a rhythm that calmed the storm of information that often overwhelms her.

“In the beginning, it used to frustrate me. Taking visual cues from interior decoration, theatre and museum exhibits, Gargash creates works that layer anxiety, nostalgia and restlessness. She imagined it draped in Sharjah, unfurled in Abu Dhabi, flowing through London and Bath, revealing something mystical and universal about human connection. It is an act of modelling courage authenticity, and self-possession to her four young children.

“I’ve always been very much about being my authentic self… art stems from love and passion – and staying committed.” Commitment, for Gargash, is not about output.

During a winter break, she visited her family’s former compound in Deira, a place where her extended family once lived together. It’s filled with images of empty spaces she photographed throughout the UAE. It’s a title that would define not only her work, but her world view. Sometimes the film might be blank, and I’m okay with that.” Her longtime printer in the UK has become an almost spiritual collaborator at this point, part of a ritual that keeps her anchored.

At the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009), her series Familial, which documents budget hotels in the U.A.E., was featured in the U.A.E.'s first Venice Biennale exhibition, It's Not You, It's Me. In 2004 she received first prize in the Emirates Film Competition, as well as a Special Recognition award in Dubai Media City's Ibda¹a Media Students Awards for her movie Wet Tiles.

For two decades she has invited us to see the soul of spaces. “I love the idea of waiting, the anticipation and the happy accidents. She enrolled intending to pursue digital design; instead, they placed her in photography. Ultimately, it led her to the spiritual culmination of her career so far: the KUN project.

“Kun in Arabic means ‘to be,’ a command by God.

It’s about surrender and humanness.” For Gargash, KUN is not a photographic series, it is a state of being. That you can have an office job and that it’s something you do in your spare time.” She tried to follow that script, graphic design, advertising, anything that sounded more acceptable as a traditional career path. “It was talking about human presence in space and the culture of spaces.” Gargash realised she was not photographing architecture; she was photographing emotion and spaces that were slowly disappearing from her birthplace.