Abdulla Elmaz

Photographer AGE: 28 NATIONALITY: Australian INSTAGRAM: @abdullaelmaz

Did you always know you wanted to get into a creative field? After I finished high school, I studied architecture for a year. I realised it wasn’t for me, but I had learnt so much while being there. There was a particular class where we would have to meditate and visualise shapes and drawing in our minds. I have applied this visual thinking a lot to my photography as I like to visualise and draw the whole shoot before shooting it. After architecture, I studied advertising for two years. I came to a realisation while studying that I was incorporating photography into my assignments and realised it was my calling. Where do you find creative inspiration in this region? I'm heavily inspired by space, time and minimalism. I find the desert to be the perfect tones of warm and cool colours. It's such a peaceful place where you can be cut off from the world and create magic. Dubai is such a fast-paced city of evolution and can be very hectic, but you only have to drive 15 minutes from the city and it’s the complete opposite with nothing but endless desert and the unknown. It’s the best of both worlds. Do you feel this region is stereotyped by what the media represents it to be? How are you playing a part in helping to change this? People who know me know I don’t really pay attention to the media and how they stereotype the region. I just focus on the beauty of this place. I like to just create images that are timeless and beautiful. So by not paying attention to it there's nothing to change. Out of sight, out of mind. What challenges have you faced since entering the creative industry? The biggest challenge has been my own photography style. It was never considered to be “commercial” enough and I had to really adjust to the fact that even if I try to be commercial it will not look it. My style of photography is very different to many and I would have moments where I would question if what I was doing was good, and whether I needed to change my style to be able to get booked for jobs. But over time I really understood that some people will hate it and some people will love it. All that matters is what I like best for myself. How do you stay original, but relevant? As a photographer and artist, I never will know what is relevant as the times and trends are always changing, so what's best is to create a style which is unique and comes naturally. I studied a lot about what makes a timeless photo. It's made up of so many elements. Photography is not just the click of a button, it’s a moment caught in time, and time is something we can never win back. I also have many strange dreams and see things that are so unnatural in this world and it helps me visually create something different. Music plays a big part in my shoots, too. I'm very driven by a feeling and making people, including myself, feel something from my photos. If I can look back on my images in one day, one year or 10 years from now and say, "Yes, that's still a beautiful shot that could have been taken yesterday", then I will have achieved my goal.