Sumaya Ali

Sumaya Ali is a lawyer and photographer based in Birmingham, UK. Her practice is rooted in exploring social issues and using photography as a vehicle to incite positive change. The artist also works on a consultancy basis with companies who wish to utilise photography to support their social responsibility goals. Ali enjoys storytelling and focuses her wider photography practice on portraits and food photography.

Ali’s photographs have been featured in a Sky documentary titled Untold Stories: Hair on Set where the British actress and filmmaker Fola Evans Akingbola has a candid discussion with black talent on TV and film sets. Together, they give insight into their experiences and the impact of the lack of knowledge, expertise and consideration in relation to the styling of Afro/curly hair on set. The cast includes Naomi Harris (Moonlight, Skyfall), Nathalie Emmanuel (Game Of Thrones, Fast & Furious), Nahel Tzegai (The Swimmers, Miracle Workers), Davida Jala (Star Trek) and Verona Rose (Top Boy).

Ali’s first exhibition On Their Shoulders (2020) showcased successful individuals of colour in a range of careers and is exhibited at her alma mater, the University of Leicester, School of Law. Each photograph is accompanied by a personal narrative that sheds light on who they  are, what they do and who, in the history of people of colour, they believe has influenced their trajectory. The exhibition aimed to showcase the achievements of successful people of colour, demonstrate a pattern of success, acknowledge and pay reverence to those that have paved the way for future generations, recognise that we have a responsibility to inspire and uplift those who will come after us, breakdown stereotypes and encourage equity, diversity and inclusion.

Your Hair is Good Hair (2021) is Ali’s second exhibition which was exhibited at the Birmingham Contemporary Art Gallery. The exhibition was conceived from the artist’s journey towards accepting and celebrating the natural curl pattern and texture of her hair, while also challenging the media’s projection of a singular hair aesthetic. Behind the visuality of the images is a wealth of history that connects hair to race. From the Tignon Laws in Louisiana, USA in the 1700s, to apartheid South Africa’s ‘pencil-test’, discriminatory constructs around afro textured hair which have for centuries, created a ripple effect that still exists today. Ali thus integrates each portrait with a personal narrative from her subjects, a gesture of agency in order to counter hair conformity and celebrate the beauty of diversity.

Seasons of Solitude (2022), the third exhibition, was exhibited at Ort Gallery. The exhibition explores the universal lens of the Covid-19 pandemic to examine facets of isolation and solitude. Moving away from her disposition towards traditional portraiture featured in her previous exhibitions, Ali looked to expand her practice and delve into the world of conceptual photography. Through her in depth research, she gleaned that while common threads may interweave our perspectives on the subject matter, our feelings on solitude as well as how we perform aloneness, are multi-faceted and encompass an amalgamation of emotions. These authentic experiences and their nuances are what Ali’s diverse visuality presents to the viewer. One may find for instance that loneliness does not require physical solitude or that joyful sentiments are not always an antithetical response to being alone.