Some of my favourite photographs are the ones that feel less like a campaign and more like a memory. When Canon asked me to photograph a campaign featuring people from my own community, I knew immediately that I wanted to photograph my friends Rakan and his fiancée, Rahaf. They are both from Jeddah, and there was really only one place I wanted to take them: Al-Balad.


Jeddah is home to me in a very deep way. I grew up there, went to school there throughout my childhood, and later returned to study at university. So many of my earliest memories are tied to the city ... its streets, its sea, its particular light, and the feeling of growing up somewhere that has always seemed to exist between the old and the new. I have photographed Jeddah many times over the years, but it never feels quite the same. The old Hijazi houses, wooden rawasheen, narrow streets and beautifully weathered walls seem to change with the light and with the people moving through them. There is a sense of history everywhere, but also a feeling that Al-Balad is constantly being reinvented by the people who live, work and gather there.


Coming back to photograph Rakan and Rahaf in a place so connected to my own history made the assignment feel particularly personal. I wasn't simply photographing two friends in a beautiful location; I was photographing them in a city that shaped me. And there was another reason Al-Balad felt like the only possible choice. Rakan and Rahaf first met online, and Al-Balad was the first place they chose to meet in person. So this wasn't just a location that looked beautiful in photographs, it was already part of their story.


There is an intimacy that comes from already knowing something about the people you photograph — their personalities, their history, and the way they are together. My job becomes less about directing a moment and more about noticing the small things that happen naturally between them.

And that is what I love about photographing love. It is rarely in the big, obvious gestures. It is in the way someone looks at the person they love when they think nobody is watching, the way they walk together, an inside joke, a hand reaching for another hand. These small moments are often the photographs I remember most.


I have photographed weddings and stories of love all over the world, but there is something particularly special about photographing people from my own home, in a place that holds so much of my own history.

A man and woman in traditional Middle Eastern attire sit together under palm trees, sharing a joyful moment outdoors.
A happy couple relaxing together among lush tropical palm plants, woman in floral dress, man in white outfit.
Two people with dirty faces lean against a dark stone wall near a large clay pot in a dramatic scene.
A smiling couple poses intimately in warm lighting, with a woman leaning on a man's shoulder as he clasps his hands.
Romantic couple sharing an intimate moment surrounded by glowing bokeh candle lights in a rustic stone setting.
Couple dancing together on a sunny urban street, woman in floral dress, man in gray vest, holding hands outdoors.
Couple sharing a romantic moment seated together in warm golden light, woman in floral dress leaning on man's shoulder.
A couple poses in an ornate wooden doorway of an ancient building, dressed in traditional South Asian attire.
Smiling couple sitting back-to-back on wooden furniture in a charming courtyard with green ivy-covered walls.
A man and young girl sit together smiling on stone steps by an ornate wooden door.
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