Vantage Point 13

The latest edition of Sharjah Art Foundation’s open-call photography exhibition examines the evolving possibilities of documentary photography through newly commissioned works by six artists – Luisa Dörr, Latifa AlBokhari, Sathish Kumar, Adam Rouhana, Guanyu Xu and Maheder Haileselassie.

The principle is that photography is not simply as a tool for recording reality but can be treated as a medium through which histories and systems of representation are negotiated. So through portraiture and observational strategies, Dörr, AlBokhari and Kumar probe the nuances of lived experience, tracing intimate connections between land and belonging via long-term collaborations with individuals, families and communities; Rouhana, Guanyu Xu and Haileselassie explore themes of absence and rupture, photography as a means of grappling with questions of visibility and with histories interrupted by conflict or erasure. As SAF puts it: “The works position documentary photography as a field in transformation – one defined not by static truths, but by continual discernment”.

Vantage Point 13 is curated by Sara Al Mheiri and Osemudiamen Ekore of the SAF curatorial team.

To 29 November.

Above: Sathish Kumar, Dream (2026). Below: Luisa Dörr, Yaritza and Yuli, Teuchitlán, Jalisco, Mexico (2024)