Abandoned Villages

• Photographer
  Mohammed Munir El Kadi
• Agency / Studio
  Tasweeri Photography

Whether because of war, natural disaster, population exchanges or simply socio-economic changes, deserted human habitat represent a very interesting subject. The abstract hollow structures, the bricks and stones of what is left behind becomes an eco if life that was once there, and a reflection of the ghosts of people who once shared the smile of joy and the tear of despair in that place. I have taken this subject as a material of study in one of my lifetime projects that will continue while blood still circulate my veins. I started with a deserted fishing village in the UAE that was abandoned due to the change of lifestyle here, then to Oman and to a couple of Greek villages in Turkey, abandoned due to war and population exchanges. I still want to know where this journey would lead me.

I restarted my artistic journey in photography as a form of Sufi meditation and a celebration of our similarities and differences as a human race, as well as those in the physical world around us and what they mean. Chaos and harmony work side by side in a tango of diversity and subtle uniformity. To me photography is a way to transcend from mundane existence to spiritual richness. I am an advocate of the principle concept that photography, in its deepest artistic form, is a three point bridge between the artist, the subject and the eye of the beholder.