Frames that changed life
Manama : When Summer Ameen had her first baby, she decided to photograph him in a beautiful fine art style that was not available in Bahrain. Friends started asking her to photograph her babies and eventually the demand for her child photography service grew successfully making her now a full-time photographer.
Within two years, she received four awards from the Professional Photographers of America in recognistion of her photographic excellence.
Ameen’s works have been published in Professional Photographer Magazine (USA) and have been exhibited in the US as well as Bahrain. She recently directed her first music video for Ibantuta, a brilliant Basque musician, who’s currently based in Bahrain. She was also recently chosen by Malja to curate their first Photography Open Call.
Passion for Photography
“To me, photography is a passport to the world. It puts me in places and situations that I would not experience otherwise. I meet a variety of interesting people along the way and tell their stories. Ultimately photography and filmmaking are both tools for storytelling, which is at the core of what I love to do,” Ameen said.
“My photography centers on people and food; basically the best things in life! I photograph families at the most important times in their lives. In addition to family photography, I offer commercial and corporate photography and video production,” she explained.
“I focus on portraits that express a brand’s personality in an approachable and warm style, as well as making food look as delicious as it tastes. When it comes to my personal work, I create conceptual photographs that convey the messages that are on my mind,” she remarked.
“What excites me most about photography are the opportunities it brings for me to be in different environments with each project and to meet different people. Each family and each company I photograph is unique and has its own story. So I have to learn about them and capture them in a way that shows who they are and what they stand for,” Ameen elaborated. “I love the creativity that involves. My main aim with curating was to choose work that is artistically interesting, and to put it under a larger umbrella that is culturally relevant.”
Curating Malja’s Photography Open Launch Exhibition
Ameen shared her concept for curating Malja’s photography exhibition. “My con-cept as a curator for Malja’s Photography Open Call was firstly to find out what is out there in terms of photography in Bahrain and the region. For this reason, I kept the subject matter open,” she revealed.
“The criteria for selection was work that exhibited a message, a strong aesthetic approach, as well as technical skill as a photographer. Many photography enthusiasts show one or the other of these elements, but I believe it takes an artist to unify all three in one piece of work, and this is the kind of photography you will see exhibited at the Photography Open Call at Malja,” she said.
“The world is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper” (W.B. Yeats). This summarises my approach to photography, and life. You can get inspired by anything around you if you open your mind and heart and let your creativity run free,” she added.
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