MAKKAH: Through a deeply personal lens, Saudi Arabia photographer Shaker Samargandi is presenting a contemporary vision of Madinah.
Born and raised in Madinah, he says his familiarity with the city’s rhythms and spaces has shaped his artistic vision.
Rather than treating the holy city as a staged subject, Samargandi approaches it as “a living memory.” Through his lens, streets, courtyards and architecture become narrative elements revealing the city’s layered identity.
Samargandi told Arab News that Islamic architecture, especially that associated with the Prophet’s Mosque, has been a central focus of his visual interest, given its spiritual and aesthetic values deeply rooted in history.
He says his focus is not directed toward the overall scene, but the fine details that reflect the philosophy and aesthetics of the structure, allowing the viewer to contemplate the relationship between form and meaning.
This approach has allowed architecture to be presented as a living element, one that interacts with light and the passage of time.
Madinah’s geography plays a role, Samargandi explained. Mountains and harrat lava fields meet farms and palm groves within the urban fabric, creating a distinctive interplay between nature and urban life.
For the photographer, this relationship underscores how place is formed through constant interaction between landscape and people.
He says residents have often responded to his work by seeing their city from unfamiliar angles, prompting renewed reflection on their everyday surroundings.
Samargandi is now developing long-term projects, including a photo book documenting Madinah. For him, visual documentation carries cultural responsibility, particularly as the city undergoes rapid urban and social transformation.
Photography, he says, is not merely archival, it preserves daily details and aesthetic character for future generations while offering a tool to understand and rediscover place.
He further explained that working on long-term projects allows for a deeper understanding of a place, away from the fast pace of visual consumption.
Samargandi believes Madinah still holds, for the artist, vast territories and stories to be explored, that engage the present and honor the city’s roots.
