Sudanese photographer Hashim Nasr has transformed his forced exile into a powerful artistic statement about war, displacement, and survival. When conflict erupted in Sudan, Nasr found himself already across the border in Egypt, watching his homeland descend into chaos from a distance. Rather than respond with violence, he chose to bear witness through his camera, creating the project "On War and Displacement" as his form of testimony and resistance.
For Nasr, photography has become a language of survival that transcends traditional documentary work to embrace the poetic and symbolic. His images speak to absence, displacement, and the fragile memories of those forced to flee their homes. Faces fade in his photographs to better express universal experiences, while bodies become silhouettes suspended between two worlds - the one they lost and the one they have yet to find.
As a Sudanese artist in exile, Nasr represents a generation for whom creating art is an act of resistance. In a world saturated with violent images, he deliberately chooses restraint, suggestion, and slowness as a necessary counterpoint to historical brutality. Through his work, he reminds viewers that photography can become a space of memory, dignity, and hope, far beyond simply capturing what the eye sees.
Nasr's journey into photography began in 2019 during Sudan's revolution, when he documented street protests to reflect what was happening around him. However, he considers his true foundation in photography to have started in summer 2020 during COVID-19, when he began documenting his emotions through self-portraits using his phone camera. This personal and experimental approach became the seed of his visual language.
Drawing inspiration from photographers like Francesca Woodman, Heba Khalifa, and Aida Muluneh, Nasr has developed a surrealist style deeply rooted in personal experience. One of his earliest self-portraits, titled "Unicorn Fight 1" (2022), used blue cones as symbolic elements and marked the beginning of his use of objects and symbols to express what words could not convey.
The photographer's work is heavily influenced by his childhood memories and family experiences. He recalls a particularly vivid memory from a family birthday gathering where his uncle brought a camera, capturing everyone looking at the cake with its shiny decorations and everyone's smiles. This moment of family unity contrasts sharply with his current reality of displacement and separation.
Nasr's creative process is highly conceptual yet always rooted in personal experience. He sketches ideas in notebooks, constructs objects, stages sets, and uses symbols to translate emotions into visual forms. His most recent work includes portraits for his "On War and Displacement" series, continuing his exploration of exile and identity.
One photograph that particularly represents his artistic vision is "Boxed" (2023-24), which he describes as speaking to his inner child through elements of play, surrealism, and the color blue, while featuring his parents posing for him for the first time. He considers this image the culmination of his photographic practice, expressing a specific feeling of being trapped in space and time.
For Nasr, the balance between intuition and reflection is crucial in constructing photographic images. Intuition comes first, like a seed leading to the moment of capture, while reflection follows, shaping how the photograph is presented, sequenced, and understood. He defines beauty in photography not as perfection but as authenticity - a photograph can be beautiful when it reveals something raw, tender, or true, even if it's not conventionally "pretty."
The photographer believes strongly in photography's power to change collective perception of events and eras. He sees it as capable of redefining how events are remembered and how history is told, with the power to shift empathy, challenge certain narratives, and create new ones. For him, photography serves as testimony, creating space for reflection while navigating between truth and metaphor.
Nasr's work bridges the intimate and universal, beginning with personal sparks and ideas born from his memories, family, and personal stories, but reaching toward universal experiences through symbolism and metaphor - themes of identity and loss, exile and nostalgia that resonate across cultures.
Currently living in Alexandria, Egypt, Nasr finds peace in morning walks by the sea, where the sound of waves provides a mental reset from thoughts of deadlines, projects, and exile. He treats his images as mirrors of his mental states, glimpses of the many stories he couldn't tell with words alone.
One of his most time-intensive projects involved spending weeks handcrafting simple objects and accessories for a single photograph. Last May, he worked daily for hours to create two enormous artificial flowers from organza, finding excitement in the process itself rather than just the final product.
Looking toward the future, Nasr is developing a project close to his heart that explores questions of gender identity and his journey dealing with questions he had as a child. He also dreams of visiting Socotra Island in Yemen, famous for its unique biodiversity and pristine beauty, including its distinctive flora and trees.
Despite his physical distance from Sudan, Nasr remains deeply connected to his homeland, particularly the banks of the Nile in Khartoum. He describes this landscape as filled with silence, vast green fields, and timelessness - a place that seems infinite and full of memories, representing what he can never tire of but cannot currently access.
When asked what he believes is missing from today's world, Nasr points to empathy and love for all people. He argues that the capacity to see each other as fully human, beyond borders and identities, has been eroded by fear, division, and constant hierarchies. Without empathy, he believes we lose the thread that connects us and allows us to understand others' pain and recognize our common humanity.
If given the chance to start over, Nasr says he would still choose art but would give himself permission to begin earlier, without the weight of fear or doubt, expressing himself fully without fear. He would follow his instincts from the beginning and allow himself to grow as an artist without fears limiting his development.
Nasr will present a selection of works with TINTERA at 1-54 London from October 16-19, offering viewers the opportunity to experience his unique vision of displacement, memory, and resistance. For him, photography isn't just a chosen practice but something he needs to express his unspoken words - his way of processing emotions, preserving memories, and dealing with loss. Photography allows him to exist in the world with a voice when words fail him, and without it, he doesn't know how he would stand.
