Amir Hazim is an Iraqi visual artist and photographer, originally trained at the College of Fine Arts in Baghdad, grounded in academic technique yet enriched by a profoundly autodidactic approach. His work unfolds across photography, sound, sculpture, painting, and installation. Drawing on melancholic memories and futuristic visions rooted in post-2003 Baghdad, he layers lived experience and social history into cinematic black-and-white compositions rich in shadow, alongside bursts of vibrant colour.

Since launching his professional career around 2019, Hazim has contributed to notable exhibitions, such as the RAF 3rd Edition in Ramallah via Zawyeh Gallery (2022), and the group show More Than Your Eyes Can See: Contemporary Photography from the Arab World at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. (2022). Beyond creating art, he also took on the role of co-curator for The Circle Was a Point (2024), a photography exhibition organized by the Barjeel Art Foundation in collaboration with Foundry. The exhibition spotlighted Middle Eastern and North African photographers in a meditation on the medium’s capacity to transcend cultural, political, and geographic confines.

During his stay Amir worked on a series of pictures that depict the people visiting the residency. Most importantly he worked on a project where he photographs architectural elements that have visible layers of history and time passing. He also photographed artist Maitha Abdalla whilst she was wearing the head piece of a costume used in the local village for a folkloristic yearly celebration called “Fora L’ors”.

Image courtesy of Nicolo Venelli