“Aged 9 in the heart, 90 in mind, 19 on paper. Photography has been my secret hiding place since 2008. My personal diary, if I may say.” Usra Al Madhoun

 

Born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1993, Usra Al Madhoun started photography at age 13. She practice artistic photography as an art rather than hobby at the age of 16 and won several awards and photography competitions such as TripleW profesional and amateur Arab word competition as 1st place,

The young photographer also won at this young age magazine award as the best amateur photographer, and United Nations Youth Association award. Usra graduated from high-school in 2011 Majoring in Communication Arts: Radio/ TV/ Filmmaking at LAU. She participated in 2 Collective exhibitions in Beirut and Singapore. Al Madhoun is very busy now preparing for her upcoming collective exhibition in Shahrzad Gallery, New York.

 

I’m not really the type of girl that tries to ‘capture’ moments that already exist. Letting loose of my imagination, breaking free from the obvious, picturing things that have not necessarily happened, but MAY have, if the laws of nature & logic were set aside, ‘creating’ the moment, is what I always long for.” Usra says about her style in work.

 

Al Mahha on Usra Al Madhoun

When I first saw Usra’s photographies, I immediatly fell in love with her talent surprisingly at a young age! Quoting her “letting loose of my imagination” is I believe the element of success and power in Usra’s work. Her imagination takes the viewer to an eternity point, and leads her to think out of the box when shoots her snaps. It is cliche to say “each artwork has a stroy” but in Usra’s case, each artwork has poetic approach, creating a serene calming scene, a comfort zone to the viewr with the soft shots.

 

Althoug I am not a big fan of “excessive” use of photoshop in photography, Usra smarlty use it to blend reality into imagination which will make you think her photographs are taking from a real scene. This also adds uniquess to her artworks because you are not dispatched from reality and yet not striken with it. I can say that, reality inspires & imagination leads Usra Al Madhoun photography.

I wish to see an exhibition for her in the region, at this young age – 19 years old – Usra can be inspiring and learnt a lot from her by young photographers. For latest updates on Usra Al Madhoun, join her Facebook page.

Cheers