Clubber Spotlight: Nur Khamis
This week, we're taking a look at Bucharest-native Nur Khamis, whose work explores the bounds of experimentation spurred on by a new generation of creatives in Romania.
My practice is focused on capturing the unconventional beauty of the human form. My photography is a mix between documentary and staged portraiture, with a focus on experimentation and intimacy. I’m attracted to the fantasy of fashion, and have always loved how it devise entirely new narratives. I frequently return to themes of femininity, queerness, gender fluidity, and the performance of identity. Pushing boundaries and challenging representation in the fashion industry have always played a fundamental role in my work.
My community is found in my hometown of Bucharest. Our creative scene is filled with fantasy and art, as well as hardship, challenges, and a collective desire to evolve. At the same time, it’s full of ambiguities - there’s a dichotomy between Western ideals and maintaining our Eastern European identity. There's also a contrast between the older and the younger generations, where the former finds comfort in the same practices, and the latter makes space for experimentation and shifting narratives towards something new. Through the years, I found a lot of inspiration in this community, and my models have either been my friends, or people I admired and whose essence I wanted to capture through my lens.
Some of the processes I use in my image making are experimenting with mediums, mixing analog and digital photography. I appreciate the uncertainty, almost anxiety of shooting on film, and the rawness of digital techniques, that provide me more of a sense of freedom. I’m very inspired by the past, especially by the 90s, and I like looking back at that era of fashion photography and recreating it in my own way. One of the most important parts of my process is choosing my model. I usually cast someone who can naturally bring my vision to life, someone authentic in how they look or act. I don’t like staging my model too much - I observe their natural movement, their facial expression, and capture them just so, as themselves, even in my commercial work. I find so much beauty in authenticity, and I don’t like the idea of changing someone too much.
I find my biggest inspiration in women - women in my life and women I follow - artists, filmmakers, photographers, activists, mothers. There is so much beauty in the resilience of women. For a long time I photographed men and I tried to challenge ideas and performances of masculinity in my work. Recently, I’ve shifted towards capturing women, influenced by my own journey into womanhood - I found image making as a platform for self-discovery and exploration.
