BIO
Sara Sallam (1991) is an Egyptian multidisciplinary artist, designer, visual researcher, and book maker based in the Netherlands. She works with photography, video, and creative writing, often re-appropriating and manipulating archival material to invite hidden meanings to emerge. Her research-based work, which she self-publishes in the form of handmade books, explores themes of absence, loss, and longing. It reflects her interest in investigating visual ways of portraying things we cannot see and people we can no longer meet. Against this backdrop, Sara reflects on growing up in Egypt, criticising the colonial heritage manifested in tourism, archaeology, and museum practices preventing Egyptians from relating to their past and ancestors.

Sara’s work has been exhibited internationally in solo and group shows and fairs such as Photo London and Intersect 21, and is held in the collection of the Museum of Old and New Art and in private collections. She was awarded grants from Magnum Foundation, Arab Fund for Arts & Culture, the Prince Claus Fund, and Mophradat. Her work was shortlisted for the Lange-Taylor Prize, the Friends of the Arab World Institute Award, Kassel Dummy Award, the Stedelijk Museum’s Art Acquisitions, and Magnum Foundation Fund.

I’m represented by Tintera Gallery
I teach photography at Willem de Kooning Academy
I’m a member in WomenPhotograph
I’m on Instagram and Linkedin
I'm reachable via this email

2021 Acquisition, Museum of Old and New Art

2019 Shortlist, Stedelijk Museum’s Municipal Art Acquisitions 2020

2019 Shortlist, Magnum Foundation Fund

2018 Nominated, Joop Swart Masterclass

2017 Finalist, Lange-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, Kassel Dummy Award

2016 Shortlist, PhotoIndependent Art Fair

2021 Group Exhibition Vantage Point 9, at Sharjah Art Foundation 

2021 Group Exhibition A Whole Population of Poets, at Sumac Space

2021 Group Exhibition Familiar Faces: Spring Exhibition, at Tintera Gallery, Cairo

2021 Intersect 21, Online Photography Fair with Tintera Gallery

2021 Participation as a Guest Artist at the Open Edition Gallery, invited by Mohamed Somji

2020 Group Exhibition Eternal Light II, curated by Art D’Egypte, at The Factory, Cairo

2020 Photo London, Online Photography Fair with Tintera Gallery

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

2016 M.A. in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography (Distinction), at the London College of Communication, UK

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

2021 A Tourist Handbook: Egypt Outside of Egypt (Second Edition) 
2021 Let My Eyes Have a Glimpse of You
2020 A Tourist Handbook: Egypt Outside of Egypt (First Edition)
2020 If I Can Be Heard In The Place Where You Are
2020 At Last, I Hold Your Gaze

2020 Grant from the Prince Claus Fund

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