From dentist to artist: how a Sudanese exile turned to pictures as an outlet for trauma | Global growth

‘For me, red is always a representation of blood and losing people, so I tend to use this red fabric to represent our trauma.” The Sudanese photographer Hashim Nasr is talking about how the war in his homeland has influenced his work.

Before the start of the conflict in 2023, the figures in his photographs were often covered in flowers or holding heart shapes, challenging stereotypes of masculinity. Now, flowing red fabric representing trauma, loss and bloodshed is a frequent motif.

Nasr describes his art as “dreamlike” – his project On War and Displacement features a series of striking, surreal images with anonymous figures wearing traditional white Sudanese robes, their identities concealed beneath conical masks.

In one of his most recent works, two figures sit in front of a TV, from which a length of red fabric flows out towards them.

“Me and my family are always stuck in front of TV, watching news of what’s occurring in Sudan,” says Nasr, who now lives in Egypt. But, he provides: “All you get from TV is news of destruction, blood and loss.”

In different photographs, the crimson cloth trails from a suitcase or flows between totally different buildings, representing how conflict has pushed Sudanese to go away their houses and discover new ones.

War has additionally remodeled how the dentist turned photographer views his work: from a type of private artistic expression to a instrument for elevating consciousness in regards to the state of affairs in his nation, which the UN calls the world’s largest humanitarian disaster.

“I feel this heavy weight on me to speak up. I need to express who I am and the impact this war has on me as a person [and] my family,” he says.

Nasr was on vacation in Egypt in April 2023 when the conflict in Sudan broke out and has not been capable of return. He nonetheless struggles to adapt to life overseas, he says, residing in a small dwelling realizing that his giant household home in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, has been looted by militia fighters.

At least 3.3 million Sudanese have fled Sudan since 2023, with 1.5 million arriving in Egypt, according to the UN, whereas the rest are unfold all through Sudan’s different neighbours.

While Nasr’s shut household escaped Sudan, lots of his family are among the many 8 million internally displaced individuals. Within two months of the conflict beginning, an uncle who had been on dialysis died as a result of he was trapped in his dwelling, unable to entry therapy.

“It was really hard news for us to take at that time because we’d been asking them to go to a safer place, or at least get his medication,” says Nasr. “But anytime they tried to leave there were clashes outside.”

Nasr started experimenting with artwork throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, when his dental apply was closed, taking self-portraits and utilizing mates as fashions. While he nonetheless does some part-time dentistry, artwork is now his predominant focus.

His work is generally shared on social media websites akin to Instagram however his photographs are incomes consideration within the artwork world, profitable him the East African Photography award final yr, a sequence of fellowships and a spot within the British Journal of Photography’s “ones to watch” issue final yr.

The placing masks in his photographs had been developed whereas looking for a artistic technique to conceal the identities of his fashions, aware of the chance to them and their households in Sudan in the event that they had been recognized.

Some of his photographs are a commentary on the conflict itself – akin to a sequence referred to as the Curse of Gold, which depicts males looming over a lady wrapped in gold cloth to characterize the looting of Sudan’s gold sources by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

But most of his work is about connecting with different Sudanese with shared experiences of trauma, loss and exile.

“I noticed this war isn’t talked about enough in social media or in the news,” he says. “I feel like it’s neglected and that gave me the motivation to talk more about it.”