BIO
Sara Sallam is an Egyptian multidisciplinary artist, designer, and visual researcher based in the Netherlands. She works across media and platforms, using photography, video, creative writing, and archive material, and making books and short films. Themes of absence and loss run throughout her multilayered projects in which she often explores ways of visualising things we cannot see and people we cannot meet. Sara has exhibited internationally and was awarded grants from Magnum Foundation and Mophradat. Her work was shortlisted in Lang-Taylor Prize, Kassel Photobook Award, The Friends of the Arab World Institute Award, Joop Swart Masterclass, and Magnum Foundation Fund. In 2020, Sara began self-publishing her work in the form of hand-bound photobooks.

I’m a member in WomenPhotograph
I’m on Instagram and Linkedin

2019 Shortlist, Stedelijk Museum’s Municipal Art Acquisitions 2020

2019 Shortlist, Magnum Foundation Fund

2018 Nominated, Joop Swart Masterclass

2017 Finalist, Lang-Taylor Prize

2017 Special Mention, The Friends of the Arab World Institute Award

2017 Nominated, Joop Swart Masterclass

2016 Nominated, Plat(t)form Portfolio Review, Fotomuseum Winterthur

2016 Shortlist, Dummy Award Kassel

2016 Shortlist, PhotoIndependent Art Fair

2020 Online Print Sale For The Love of  Beirut

2020 Online Print Sale The Female Gaze

2020 Online Print Sale Diversify Photo Covid-19 Relief Print Sale

2019 Group Exhibition The Autumn Exhibition, curated by Tintera Photographic Art Consultancy, at Tintera Gallery, Cairo

2019 Group Exhibition She Tells, curated by Soma Art Gallery, at B’sarya Gallery, Alexandria

2018 Group Exhibition She Tells, curated by Soma Art Gallery, during Cairo Photo Week, Cairo

2018 Group Exhibition Artchaeology: Intersection between Art and Archaeology, curated by International Association of Photography and Theory, at The Nicosia Municipal Art Centre, Nicosia

2018 Solo Exhibition The Fourth Pyramid Belongs to Her, at Darb 1718 Gallery, Cairo

2017 Group Exhibition Humaness, curated by Bertan Selim, at Sexyland, Amsterdam

2017 Photobook presented at Format Festival, Derby

2016 Photobook presented at Offprint London, at Tate Modern, London

2016 Photobook presented at PhotoIndependent Art Fair, Los Angeles

2016 PostGraduate Show In The Forest of Things, University of the Arts London, London

2014 Group Exhibition Layer of Green, at Contemporary Image Collective, Cairo

2013 Group Exhibition Spuren 2.0 Symposium, at E-Werk, Freiburg

2013 Group Film Screening Cross Culture Video, at Goethe Institute Cairo and Artellewa Gallery, Cairo

2019 M.A. in Film and Photographic Studies (Cum Laude), at Leiden University, NL

2015 M.A. in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography (Distinction), at London College of Communication, UAL, UK

2013 B.A. in Media Design (High Honours), at The German University in Cairo, EG

2020 A Tourist Handbook: Egypt Outside of Egypt, Volume 1: Paris 
2020 If I Can Be Heard In The Place Where You Are
2020 At Last, I Hold Your Gaze

2017 Mophradat Grant for Artists

2016 Arab Documentary Photography Program, by Magnum Foundation, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, and Prince Claus Fund

2015 Vice Chancellor’s International Scholarship, University of the Arts London

2012 Excellence Award, The German University in Cairo, covering a summer Photography workshop at Berliner Technische Kunsthochschule

2010 Excellence Award, The German University in Cairo, covering a summer 2D Animation course at Animation-School-Hamburg

2008 Excellence Award, The German University in Cairo, covering a summer German language A2 course at Ludwig Maximilian Universitaet