Photography has long been seen as a medium that captures a single moment in time. But at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi, a new exhibition is challenging that perception by asking a simple yet profound question: What if photography could become something more than an image?
Spectrum: Becoming Visible – Becoming Image, the latest exhibition presented through the Photographer-in-Residence Programme, showcases the work of ten UAE-based photographers and visual artists who spent four months experimenting, collaborating, and pushing the boundaries of visual storytelling. Rather than treating photography as the final product, the participating artists transform it into sculptures, installations, video works, textiles, and immersive experiences that invite visitors to rethink the role of the camera in contemporary art.
Led by renowned Emirati photography expert Jassem Rabee Al Awadi, the residency encouraged participants to move beyond technical photography and explore the emotional, cultural, and conceptual possibilities of the medium. Throughout the programme, artists received mentorship, participated in weekly critiques, and refined their projects through continuous dialogue—an approach that emphasized artistic growth over perfection.
Photography Beyond the Photograph
One of the exhibition's most striking installations comes from Chinese artist Yijing "Bao" Li, an NYU Abu Dhabi graduate whose work explores identity, migration, and belonging.
Her installation resembles a deconstructed window suspended between cultures. Inspired simultaneously by the intricate geometry of the traditional Emirati mashrabiya and the paper-cut window decorations from China's Shanxi Province, the artwork creates a symbolic dialogue between two homes.
Crafted from wax to imitate melting metal, the installation is accompanied by moving projections that cast shifting shadows across the gallery. A Shanxi tree—historically associated with migration—stands beside a UAE palm tree, representing the artist's emotional connection to both countries and illustrating how identity can exist across multiple places rather than within a single border.
Finding Art in Everyday Moments
For Emirati multidisciplinary artist Dhabia AlMansoori, inspiration came from one of the simplest places imaginable: spending time with her younger brother.
Her installation, With This Fruit, I Will Build a Kingdom, began as a series of photographs documenting him cutting fruit. During the residency, mentors challenged her to move beyond aesthetically pleasing images and ask a deeper question: Why are these photographs important?
The answer emerged naturally.
Each time her brother cut a fruit, he instinctively arranged the pieces into playful sculptures. What started as ordinary family moments evolved into an installation inspired by children's building blocks, celebrating imagination, curiosity, and learning through play.
The project also transformed the artist herself. She repeatedly visited Abu Dhabi's Mina Zayed Fruit Market—eventually making seven trips—to better understand the environment surrounding her photographs. Along the way, she formed relationships with vendors and embraced the unpredictability of working with a child, including one memorable moment when a watermelon rolled off the table and shattered across the floor.
Rather than viewing these interruptions as mistakes, AlMansoori came to see them as essential parts of the creative process.
Keeping Film Photography Alive
Another compelling project comes from Faisal Al Marzooqi, whose passion for analogue photography began after discovering his father's old film camera during university.
Although he works professionally as a dentist and performs as a musician, Al Marzooqi has become a passionate advocate for film photography—a medium many consider obsolete.
His portraits focus on musicians from the UAE, capturing them not as performers on stage but as individuals behind their public personas. Some are photographed while composing songs, rehearsing quietly, or simply relaxing before a performance.
Working with medium-format film allows only twelve exposures per roll, making every photograph intentional. Unlike digital photography, where hundreds of images can be taken in minutes, analogue photography demands patience, precision, and careful observation.
For Al Marzooqi, those limitations are exactly what make the medium so valuable.
A Community That Shapes Creativity
Although each artist approached photography differently, they all shared one experience: growth through collaboration.
The residency emphasized open discussion, constructive criticism, and experimentation. Weekly conversations with mentors and fellow artists encouraged participants to constantly revise their work and embrace feedback as part of the artistic journey.
Yijing Li described the programme as a rare creative environment where artists openly supported one another, saying that the sense of community mirrors her wider experience of living and working in the UAE.
Similarly, AlMansoori credits the residency with changing her understanding of artistic practice, realizing that meaningful art is never created in isolation but through collaboration, patience, and shared ideas.
More Than an Exhibition
Rather than presenting finished masterpieces, Spectrum: Becoming Visible – Becoming Image reveals the creative process itself. Visitors witness experimentation, vulnerability, and transformation as artists question what photography can become when it is freed from traditional expectations.
The exhibition ultimately demonstrates that today's photographers are no longer simply documenting reality—they are constructing experiences, preserving memories, exploring identity, and creating entirely new artistic languages.
As contemporary art continues to evolve across the UAE, Spectrum stands as a powerful reminder that sometimes the most meaningful image is not the photograph itself, but the story it inspires.
