Fatimah Hossaini

Fatimah Hossaini is a photographer, artist, video maker and curator, her work highlights the beauty and the colours of Afghanistan, breaking perceptions about the country with works such as the "Beauty Amid War" series.

After graduating from Tehran University, Fatimah Hossaini travelled to Afghanistan connecting back with the land of her roots and teaching in the photography department of Kabul University.

During the country's civil war, Hossaini founded Mastooraat, an organisation for women, youth and peace, empowering all through photography and art.

Hossaini's art photography is vibrant, filled with the beautiful colours of Afghanistan; they showcase the diverse communities of the country, the lives of Afghan women, emphasising through photography women's rights and freedoms, exploring questions on identity and gender, and creating art in defiance of the patriarchal society, countering narratives and at the same time perceptions on Afghanistan. 

Portraits of women dressed in traditional Afghan dresses with heritage pieces made by women, are taken in both un-staged situations and staged circumstances—set up by the artist where for instance, women are pictured in front of shops around Kabul, accentuating the artist's creative essence of  women being at the center of her work—creating art photography as a space to amplify women's voices from Afghanistan.

After the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021, Fatimah Hossaini was forced to flee, threatened for being a woman and an artist. Hossaini found herself living in exile in Paris where she started to produce work and portraits of women in exile, photographing Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Qizilbash and Uzbek women.

A recent video work by Fatimah Hossaini, entitled 'Roots in Transit', depicts a couple riding their motorcycle through the streets of Paris with as background music Charles Aznavour's 'Hier Encore' mixed with music hailing from the artist's roots. The work will be shown with Art Girls Galerie at Menart Fair in Paris in September 2024, amongst other photography work by Fatimah Hossaini. 

The artist and activist shares through her work, women's resilience, explores the notion of beauty amidst the shadows of wars, reclaiming the narrative via art photography.