DOHA.- Qatar Museums launched the 2025 edition of the Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar, the nation’s premier photography biennial. This year’s festival explores themes of belonging through eight exhibitions in five locations, anchored by the lead exhibition As I Lay Between Two Seas at the Fire Station: Artist in Residence.

The exhibitions were unveiled by Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums, in the attendance of Mohammed Saad Al Rumaihi, CEO, Qatar Museums and Sheikh Hassan bin Mohamed bin Ali Al Thani, Mathaf President, among other dignitaries.

Established under the leadership of Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums, Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar builds on the nation’s commitment to nurture artistic talent, build bridges of understanding through the arts, and further develop the creative economy.

Each edition features exhibitions, awards, commissions, collaborations, presentations, and workshops focused on amplifying diverse photographic practices and dialogues, encouraging the professional and creative growth of photographers based in West Asia and North Africa (WANA).

Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar was originally launched in 2021 by Founding Director Khalifa Al Obaidly. The third edition features Meriem Berrada as Artistic Director along with guest curators Sheikha Maryam Hassan Al-Thani and Dr. Bahaaeldin Abudaya.

Khalifa Al Obaidly said, “It is an honour to bring such an outstanding group of artists and documentarians together for the third Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar. Our curators, programming directors, and volunteers for this edition have devoted themselves tirelessly to serving the photography community in Qatar and advancing the art of visual storytelling in the WANA region. We look forward to celebrating their achievements.”

The third edition of Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar presents a curation of photography practices and celebrates the diversity of talent in the region. Each exhibition presents a high calibre of visual storytelling that evokes emotion and draws inspiration from unique subjects. The main theme for the festival experiments with the notions of belonging, exemplified by the vision of the Artistic Director, Meriem Berrada, who believes that these exhibitions will encourage audiences to contemplate and self-reflect.

She said, “This edition of Tasweer explores the many layers of belonging through eight exhibitions across Doha, showcasing the work of over 88 artists from the Arab world and its diasporas. Together, they celebrate the richness and diversity of lens-based practices in our region, offering a compelling exploration of identity, community, and collective memory.”

Joining As I Lay Between Two Seas are the exhibitions Daoud Aoulad Syad, Territories of the Instant, celebrating over three decades of work by Moroccan photographer and filmmaker Daoud Aoulad-Syad; Obliteration – Surviving the Inferno: Gaza’s Battle for Existence, presenting powerful depictions of the ongoing war in Gaza, organised with Photo Humanity Grant; Refractions: Tasweer Project Awards, bringing together images by 18 contemporary Arab photographers who won the 2023 and 2024 Tasweer Awards; Threads of Light: Stories from the Tasweer Single Image Awards, showcasing 32 winning photographs from 2023 and 2024, representing photographers from 12 countries across the Arab world and beyond; Al-Mihrab, presenting Khalid Al-Al-Musallamany’s visual conversation about places of worship in Qatar; After The Game, highlighting photographers' and filmmakers' engagement with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and Garangao 2025, featuring photographs submitted through an open call celebrating the power of photography in capturing a cherished tradition.

Festival Details

As I Lay Between Two Seas offers a poetic exploration of belonging, identity, and home. Featuring works by twenty-five artists from the Arab world and its diasporas, this exhibition examines these themes not as fixed states but as ongoing productions informed by ruptures, fragments, and spectral traces. Drawing from Stuart Hall's understanding of "identity as a 'production' which is never complete, always in process", the exhibition unfolds the multitudes contained within in-between spaces–of living, existing, remembering and resisting. The voices of Khalil Gibran, Mahmoud Darwish, Etel Adnan and others inform the curatorial pace and methodology of this gathering. The exhibition -- on view from 20 April through 20 June 2025 -- is curated by Meriem Berrada.

Al-Mihrab presents a visual conversation about places of worship in Qatar through the lens of artist Khalid Al-Musallamany. Capturing mosques in both black and white and color, old and new, the exhibition highlights Al-Musallamany’s unique architectural perspective as he documents Qatar's religious spaces. The collection reflects the faith and peace felt by worshippers while showcasing the beauty of mosque design and architecture in Qatar, blending tradition with modern influences inspired by Islamic heritage. Curated by Khalifa Al Obaidly , the exhibition is on view at the Fire Station: Gallery 3 from 20 April through 20 June 2025.

After The Game highlights the engagement of photographers and filmmakers with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, showcasing diverse artistic perspectives that reflect each creator's unique vision and emotional response to the unfolding events—both inside the stadium and beyond, among fans, around the clock, and across every corner of Qatar. The exhibition also features a selection of short films about football, produced through the "Made in Qatar" program by the Doha Film Institute, which aims to discover and support passionate local filmmakers. Curated by Khalifa Al Obaidly, the exhibition is on view at the Fire Station: Gallery 4 from 20 April through 20 June 2025.

Garangao 2025, invites photographers to submit their images for this special exhibition that celebrates the power of photography in capturing memory, belonging, and the spirit of cultural continuity. Selected images will be on view at the Fire Station (Barahat) from 19 April to 20 June 2025.

Daoud Aoulad Syad, Territories of the Instant, curated by Meriem Berrada, celebrates over three decades of work by Moroccan photographer and filmmaker Daoud Aoulad-Syad. Deeply intertwined with his cinematic vision and with Moroccan popular culture, his photography captures the soul of his homeland, particularly its most remote regions. Since the 1990s, Aoulad-Syad has documented Moroccan landscapes, architecture, and people captured in dynamic moments, creating images that weave together visual storytelling with a subtle beauty. Territories of the Instant offers an intimate look at Aoulad-Syad’s evocative style, where images transport viewers into a Morocco that is both timeless and deeply rooted in memory. The exhibition is on view from 19 April to 20 June 2025 at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition is organized as a legacy of Qatar-Morocco 2024 Year of Culture.

Obliteration – Surviving the Inferno: Gaza’s Battle for Existence, curated by Dr. Bahaaeldin Abudaya, unfolds in five stages to capture various phases of the devastating war in Gaza. Tracing the conflict’s escalation over the past year, each stage serves as a powerful visual document of the unfolding tragedy, contextualised by texts that provide background on the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The exhibition is on view in an outdoor venue at Katara Cultural Village from 20 April through 20 June 2025.

Tasweer also presents two awards exhibitions curated by Sheikha Maryam Hassan Al-Thani:

Refractions: Tasweer Project Awards brings together 18 contemporary Arab photographers, winners from 2023 and 2024.Located in two interconnected buildings (45 and 46) at Katara's Cultural Village, the exhibition explores the idea of belonging through two main sections: "Scattered Reflections," documenting critical transformations due to conflict, environmental crisis, and forced displacement; and "Enduring Horizons," examining how memory endures as a form of resistance against erasure. From Sudan's current conflict to Gaza's changing landscapes, from Iraq's endangered marshlands to Morocco's disappearing oases, these photographers capture how the notion of belonging in the MENA region is in a state of constant flux. Their works navigate the tensions between movement and rootedness, personal memories and collective histories, as well as adaptation and preservation. The exhibition is on view from 20 April to 20 June 2025.

The second award exhibition, Threads of Light: Stories from the Tasweer Single Image Awards, showcases 32 winning photographs from 2023 and 2024. The exhibition highlights photographers from 12 countries across the Arab world and beyond. Selected from hundreds of submissions, the winning photographs span multiple genres, including documentary, street photography, and artistic expression. The photographs range from intimate portraits taken in Egypt and street scenes in Yemen to depictions of traditional practices in Oman and images of contemporary life in Iraq. The exhibition is on view at The Company House, Msheireb from 20 April to 20 June 2025.