Vantage Point Sharjah (VPS 12)

Sharjah Art Foundation’s annual photography exhibition returns for its 12 edition. Under the theme ‘If I Were Another’ (derived from a Mahmoud Darwish poem), this year’s exhibition addresses intimate individual experiences and the weight of collective memory, proposing empathy as the core lens through which we perceive others who may hold different identities, histories and sensibilities.

From the artists who responded to this thematic prompt through an international open call, four were selected for the exhibition; all the works featured works reflect on personal experiences, history and collective memory. Sara Kontar documents her personal experiences of exile to investigate fragments of forgotten memories and explore themes of displacement. Thasil Suhara Backer examines ecology and biopolitics through the dual lens of theatre and visual art. PhotojournalistArum Dayu explores contemporary Javanese culture and society with a particular focus on feminism and motherhood. Anthropologist Mosfiqur Rahman Johan uses photography to document the hardships of marginalised communities struggling with displacement.

Bringing together diverse voices and lived experiences, the exhibition embodies the spirit of experimentation in contemporary photography and provides a dynamic platform for a spectrum of approaches, from documentary to experimental, in both analogue and digital forms.

To 8 December.

Above: Thasil Suhara Baker, Illuminating Shores (2019–2020). Below: Mosfiqur Rohan, Memories of Underdevelopment (2017–2023)