"For now, my quest is clear" — a conversation with Hussain AlMoosawi

Hussain AlMoosawi is a multidisciplinary creative with vast experience in photography, visual journalism, and design. Exhibiting his series "Under Construction: Fences of the UAE '' at GPP’s Photo Week 2017, kickstarted a long-standing collaboration, at varying degrees, between us and the creative. We are proud to represent him as one of our most beloved and best-selling Editions artists over the years.

Interviewed by our former Editions and Exhibitions Manager, Adele Bea Cipste, Hussain provides an insightful, fascinating deep-dive into his meticulous creative process and decodes his expansive, long-term project ‘Facades of the UAE’.

For starters, could you tell me about your work as you would to someone who knows very little about it.

In brief, I document facades across the country. My project aims to provide a better understanding of the UAE’s architectural heritage, since the unification of the country until the present day.

How long has this documentation been going on?

I started in 2017 with facades. Before that for a year, I was focused on facades with split AC units, which took me to explore industrial landscapes and residential ones. This was until I decided to focus on symmetry in 2017. I've started in Abu Dhabi and photographed a lot of Dubai and a little of Sharjah and Northern Emirates.

What is your relationship with each of the cities you document? How is it different to shoot in Abu Dhabi as compared to Dubai or Sharjah?

I was born and bred in Dubai. Equally we spent a lot of time in Sharjah as kids for recreation. Abu Dhabi has less in terms of treasured memories, but it’s where I’ve lived since coming back from Australia in 2013. I think that somehow contributed to my objectivity towards my project, which started in the capital. I’m not driven by nostalgia. Many people look at what I do through that lens. Subjectivity might subconsciously spill out when I document in Dubai and Sharjah. Still, I aim to be as objective as possible.

Many people ask, "Why don't you have enough photographs in Sharjah?’’ Well, it's just a matter of practicalities. I live between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and I've reached a stage where I’ve resorted to my old method of finishing off certain areas before starting with others. This goes back to when I used to live in Melbourne, or even when I go to different cities and take pictures. I would map the city and decide where I will photograph and then I go in order, from one neighborhood to the next. In our case now, from one city to another.

Initially, there were several buildings or facades in Abu Dhabi that I believed were quite prominent. I then reached a stage where all the ‘masterpieces’ have been photographed, for me to then look at every street and what it holds in terms of something that is worthy of documentation.

Right now, I'm pretty much following the grid of Abu Dhabi. I enjoy it more this way because it gives me clarity on what I've accomplished and what is yet to be photographed. I covered most streets in Abu Dhabi’s central grid and have lately discovered pockets in the Tourist Club area that surprised me. I'm not taking many pictures in Dubai now unless there’s a building that is to be demolished; then I would spend effort to get that photographed.

You must be a great person to walk through Abu Dhabi with. Do you also read into the context and history of the buildings, or do you document mainly what attracts you visually?

My research is primarily pictorial. Sometimes I would photograph the building, then do some background research on it. Though it happens that I would know something interesting about a certain building, and I photograph it based on that. Usually, this information would already be in the public sphere, not something I investigated.

If I knew that a building holds something valuable; I would photograph it even if I don't see it visually pleasing. Though, I trust my intuition to a great degree and discovered that many buildings I photographed happen to be of a social value. At the end though, I'm taking pictures of buildings that might not always personally appeal to me, but those samples create a pattern, a typology, and that always says something.

Given the scope of my project, I would Ideally be working with research team, where I dedicate my time on visual documentation. This formula is pretty much the convention with commissioned projects, without which they cannot be put to speed. Research can be tricky, as a lot of documents no longer exist on the record, whether you are looking for architectural plans or construction contracts related to buildings in the 80s. Globally speaking, documentation of that sort is easily accessible, but not in the UAE. You might spend a lot of time just trying to identify the architect of a building. The owner might be known, but finding out who designed a building and why they designed it that way is not easily traceable. Many of these stories remain quite unknown. Given the lack of documentation, you tend to rely on oral history and the collective memory.

At this stage, I try to document as many buildings as possible because many will potentially be demolished.

It’s quite a messy process, but equally enjoyable. I think it's important not to rush into conclusions and keep collecting what I would call ‘samples’, until they can give us better insight into a collective identity, and how these forms developed.

I find this really fascinating: systematic yet messy. Documenting with clarity, which provides answers and raises more questions.

It is similar to working on a thesis: you have a research question and a body of literature. Once you are deep into attempting to answer the question, you sometimes discover you are asking the wrong one. Still, the quest towards understanding your own question is valuable. You accumulate a body of knowledge that informs the future routes of your quest. The process is equally daunting and enjoyable and requires a strong personal drive.

My quest is clear to me. What yet remains unclear is the identity of the UAE through facades. People make many assumptions, but you really must gather all these facades, as data, to see them as a collection and compare, then possibly organize them chronologically or by style, for you to have a better idea how the country looks, architecture-wise.

As modern humans, we always take the shortest distance between two given points, many of us do not get to explore our surroundings. Our perception is subjected to that. Unless you go off the beaten path, unless you go for a stroll just for the fun of it, you will never get to see new things and construct the big picture.

My role is not to only take pictures, but to primary find what is worthy of documentation, which I think is more fun than taking pictures themselves.

My role is not only to take pictures, but to find what is worthy of documentation.

Reminds me of geography readings about going off the beaten path.

It’s good that you’ve raised that. I have friends who do that with nature. First and foremost, you are an explorer, then become a photographer once you discover something worth photographing. I do the same, but in an urban environment. People think you cannot do that in cities for the fact you’re not off-roading. Though you do that mentally. This could mean venturing into a specific neighborhood that you had a certain perception about, for you then to find something different.

I remember from your previous talk you mentioned that you mainly shoot here and don’t have many projects abroad. So what's your relationship to photography when you travel, and why are your projects so focused on the UAE?

I have never actually been asked this before, although it’s an important question. People send me pictures of buildings from different places and tell me ‘You should take pictures of that!’ I have no interest in that because I’m not here to merely take nice pictures. Yes, I did start by taking pictures in Melbourne, and that’s because I lived there. It was about understanding the built environment around me, wherever I was.

Returning to the UAE, and given it’s my homeland, I had a preconceived idea about the built environment, but it was not an accurate now. My quest is to show things people see but did not observe. I believe when you live in a place, whether you are native to it or not, you have a mission to showcase it as genuinely as possible.

I tried to experiment with my approach when I visited London, but I did not find what I did culturally relevant to the place. Living there gives you that ownership, and it takes time to immerse yourself in a place. I don’t photograph right away when I came back to the UAE. I took 2-3 years to absorb my surroundings before taking pictures. Then when it happened, it felt — and still does— like a duty.

I do have some ideas for overseas projects, they’re all at a conceptual stage. They might not happen because where I live —and where I’m from— has the priority. It’s a lifetime project and it’s what keeps me creatively alive. I am more than happy to stick to one thing if it gives me purpose. That, I think, is what sets you apart from other people.

I know that you had projects on fire hydrants and parking signs in the past. Do you ever go back to those? Or have they reached their conclusion?

I think they did, and they speak of a specific phase in my career. I'm a graphic designer by training. I was initially looking at these elements purely as a designer until I started to absorb the bigger picture. Fire hydrant signs, let’s say, are elements of design, applied to different environments, and these designs consumed me for a while until I began to look at the entire urban context, which developed into my main aim of documenting as a mean to study and understand the subject. Moving on, although I still noticed these small design elements and their contribution to their identity of a place, I wanted to focus on something bigger, and that’s how I shifted from Hussain the designer to Hussain who documents architecture.

Do commissioned projects require you to change your visual style or are you expected to document in your own way?

So far, I’ve only been asked once or twice to document using my “style”. Usually, a commissioned project has a well-rounded objective beyond facades, and I quite like that. Photographing facades requires a specific mode of documentation. For my purpose it’s to create a series of typologies. Doing it for a pure aesthetic purpose does not always meet the objective of a commission. What excites me is getting a clear brief that is equally open to interpretations. Instead of, for example, telling me specifically what to photograph. Studying all aspects of a building is where the fun is, and this naturally translates into joyous moments of making pictures.

I highly appreciate being approached for my general interest in documenting architecture, not my specific style. I’m already doing it “my way” for my own project. Commissions give me an avenue to show my audience what other facets I think about, such as the context and materials. This doesn’t make it much to “Facade to Facade”, but they’re always in Hussain’s mind.

I was about to correct myself when I used the word style, because from the way I was taught to look at it, it's always that the form needs to relate to the content. It's about approach rather than imposing a particular arbitrary style.

By all means. It’s fine to use the term with a good intention, but as you said it’s not about the style, it’s about the purpose. You can have the style yet still document buildings that are not worthy of documentation.

How do you evaluate a building as having a strong personality? What is strong work to you? What is your criteria?

With older buildings, such as those from the 70s and 80s, most have a strong personality, hence I would document what comes my way. These building might have elements that are not universally unique but have something to offer compared to what’s around them. It could be the materials, the shape of the windows, or the way it combines elements of modernism with regional architecture.

Contemporary architecture is generally a challenge because it is dull to my taste. I must try a little harder to find elements that have a personality. Be it color or form. Of course, there is subjectivity here and at the end of the day I follow my intuition. I might be wrong sometimes. It is not about capturing every single building, but more about recording an impression of every style and era—putting them together to construct the bigger picture. That’s the real prize. Of course, some people happen to appreciate single pictures because they connect with the buildings; for whatever reason. That’s how the project becomes multidimensional.

Are there particular photographers whose work speaks to you, or that helped you find your own approach?

Bernd and Hilla Becher. They established the school of typology and influenced many master photographers. I want to emphasize, though: it’s not about what they produced, per se. It's more about their process. Their work is amazing, they produced masterpieces, but I'm not trying to imitate it. I try to borrow the approach and dedication they followed. For example, to generate consistency across their collection: they only photographed when it’s overcast, because overcast days were more than sunny ones where they documented and generated visual consistency. They were faithful to their subject. Of course, this is context specific. In the UAE, most days are sunny, so I don’t have to factor something like that in, but I would consider other elements to ensure consistency. For example, there is a 10–15-minute time window in which a specific building is best photographed. I must identify the best time in which they reflect light, but without strong shadows. When documenting architecture, shadows can distract you for seeing the design forms, or exaggerate them. Many times, I would travel a long distance only to discover that it's not the best condition to photograph a building. I would come back to take it in a better condition to ensure consistency across the collection.

It’s the approach what I value most about the Bechers, besides their dedication to completing a collection. You might look at a set of one of their typologies and have an impression this was photographed in the same neighborhood, but in fact, those structures where many kilometers apart. Mind you, it looks effortless. That’s what makes them masters.

The Bechers were my first association. Not on the basis of visual similarity, but because of how they would document buildings almost like sculptures.

Yes it’s the perspective obviously, something that has that unique vantage point. A quote that I tend to mention every now and then is ‘I want to diminish my own perspective or my own ego and show that of the architects’. Though by saying exactly that, you bring your own unique value. There is no escape from showing a bit of yourself.

In dealing with such a great quantity of images (or data, as you describe it) in an exhibition space, how do you think about the relationships or the spatial layout?

I try as much as possible to present the work as enlargements. That's when they have the greatest impact. Some forms of art have more impact when enlarged. Size is important, especially with my pictures, due to the details. That’s when audiences react and express a sense of familiarity with what they see.

In terms of how to organize the photos, there’s no one right way. The only method I deploy is to generate a sense of contrast within the grid. I wouldn't normally have two white buildings side by side, I would have a white one, and then something colorful. I try to configure the grid in a way that gives you an element of contrast all throughout. Sometimes the contrast can be in terms of era, where I would have an old building, a contemporary building, and then an old building. I don’t follow that strictly, but it does create visual coherence.

Once the collection is complete, there will be no right or wrong way of displaying it. If we imagine a square gallery space (four walls), then I might have a sort of beginning and end, following a chronology of when the buildings are completed.

This ties in with one of the deliverables I have in mind, which is making this collection available as an interactive archive, where people add whatever information they know about these buildings, such as actual documentation or memories, textual and visual. Researchers may want to see, for example, all the buildings built in 1984, side by side. Some might be searching for colors. This interactive archive will allow you to see the collection in different ways, according to what you're researching. It can become an interactive visual reference, or a moving exhibition that continuously shapes itself according to the curatorial direction. I think of the collection as a flexible one where the whole body of work is not a rigid work of art, but thorough documentation that enables us to understand our cities.

The scale consideration had not crossed my mind, because I've seen your works primarily in small scale here at GPP.

If you check my website and look at pictures of my exhibition, that will give you a sense of what I have in mind. My favorite wall of facades ever created was a grid of five by five of the bigger prints (70x100cm). That grid gives you an impression of what’s cooking in my head. I see that as a primitive version of large wall of 500 pictures. I think that would really create an amazing impression. I think I would need quite a large space to make that impact. 100 pictures, I think that's doable now. Not all are “verticals” by the way. I'm looking at different shapes and scales: high rise, medium rise, and low rise. All what I'm showing now with GPP or even on Instagram is high rises. Lately I’ve been busy with medium and low rises. I'm looking at specific neighborhoods and picking up on typologies that reflect the neighborhood. Once I am finished with Abu Dhabi, that would be presented as an exhibition and serve as a blueprint for what’s yet to come from the other Emirates and offer the audience some clarity on my objectives.

For now, we’ll keep them waiting.

Thank you very much for speaking with me!