Sharifa, a beautiful jagged soul

Sharifa uses poetry as means for expression or downright catharsis. She draws, too.When we were preparing for this portrait, she read me some of her poems, and walked me through some of her illustrations. I got inspired by these fragments of self; there is more, there is a lot more, buried deep down in Sharifa's soul, and yet it seemed appropriate to honour that feeling of glimpsing shards of herself by piecing a portrait together. It makes me stare at it for longer, it somehow conveys more.

This project was shot entirely on a small Nikon FA 35mm film camera. It's simple, it's silent, and it gets out of the way and lets me be there with the subject and observe. We walked and we chatted, and when we would find a place that inspired either of us, Sharifa would sit down and get her notebook out, and I would shut up and capture that moment.