Tasneem Alsultan

Tasneem Alsultan (born October 10, 1985) is a Saudi-American photographer, artist and speaker. Having covered stories primarily for The New York Times and National Geographic,

Early life and education Alsultan was born in Tucson, Arizona, but moved to the U.K. with her family at age five and completed the majority of early schooling there. She became a hobby photographer starting at age nine.

She moved to Saudi Arabia at the age of 16, She also holds a master's degree in social linguistics and anthropology from Portland State University.

Photography career Alsultan returned to Saudi Arabia in 2008 and began taking photos while trying to find a job. Her photography gained her a following on Facebook.

Alsultan's photography tends to focus on "mundane yet important" moments, particularly those moments related to women's life and empowerment in Saudi Arabia, such as women driving and visiting cinemas for the first time. and photographed AlSunbula Company and MDLBeast Sound Storm in Riyadh.

In 2022, Alsultan was a judge for World Press Photo and for Catchlight Fellowship. She participated in L'Oreal's 2022 campaign the Lesson of Worth. She was also a speaker at both Elevate Wedding Photography Conference in London, United Kingdom, and the Way Up North Photography Conference in Vienna, Austria.

Alsultan has participated in several projects in Saudi Arabia. She was an Instructor at the Lens for Equality Project funded/sponsored by Goethe Institute & French Consulate in Riyadh, a presenter and mentor in Misk 2022, and a creative Consultant at the Tanween Conference 2022 at Ithraa in Dhahran. That same year, Alsultan presented at Arles Live magazine in Paris, and was the Co-host and Organizer at the Diriyah Biennale of Photographers Conference.

She has cited Maggie Steber as a photography idol of hers.

Saudi Tales of Love One of Alsultan's most popular projects, "Saudi Tales of Love," explores the realities of marriage, divorce, and widowhood in Saudi Arabia through the eyes of Saudi women. The project was partly influenced by her own personal experience with arranged marriage at the age of 17, which eventually ended in divorce.

Selected as one of the 10 grantees of the Arab Documentary Photography Program, funded by Magnum Foundation and the Prince Claus Prize as an AFAC grantee in 2015, she began working on her project "Saudi Tales of Love". In 2016, her wedding photography was profiled by National Geographic, where she stated that she has photographed more than 200 weddings in 21 countries. She has recently extended her social documentary photography to Kuwait, where she is currently working on a project that focuses on capturing the unique challenges facing LGBTQ individuals in the country.

Awards and recognition In April 2016, Alsultan was selected by the British Journal of Photography as one of the 16 emerging photographers to watch in 2016, and was later selected by PDN as one of the 30 photographers to watch in 2017. She was a finalist in the 2017 Sony World Photography Awards in Contemporary Issues.

In 2018 she joined the Canon Ambassador program as the program's first Arab female photographer That year she was also voted the 'Princess Noura University Award for Excellence' in the Arts category.

Personal life Alsultan married at age 17; she later divorced her husband.

2018

Solo exhibition; Saudi Tales of Love; East Wing Gallery, Dubai UAE Group exhibition: Through Her Eyes Photo Festival, Berlin, Germany

2017 "Saudi Tales of Love wins first prize in Contemporary Issues 'Professional' at the Sony World Photography Awards and exhibited in Somerset House, London, UK Photographing the Female, Focus Photo Festival, Sun Mill Studios Compound Lower Parel, Mumbai, India 'Saudi Tales of Love' Gulf Photo Plus, UAE Rawiya Photo Collective: 'We Do Not Choose Our Dictators', Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, Texas, US Middle East now, Florence, Italy Rawiya Photo Collective: 'We Do Not Choose Our Dictators', Aperture, New York, US La Quatrieme Image, Paris, France

2016 'Saudi Tales of Love' Photo Kathmandu Festival 2016, Nepal Where Are We Now?, East Wing presentation at Paris Photo 2016 Tbilisi Photo Festival, Georgia Slideshow at Visa Pour L'Image