What really characterises Waha واحة and what makes it a different kind of documentary body of work is its formal experimentation. We are not very used to seeing the use of visual techniques in the documentary genre. Instead, Seif Kousmate resorts to them to probe the degradation of the subject he shows. He intervenes in some of his images by using external materials, writing, scratching or cutting them. In this way, he establishes a clear analogy between the photographic object and the landscape.
In several of his prints he uses acid and fire to corrode the image and create a strong visual contrast that serves to show the reality of the deterioration he has observed.
In several of his prints he uses acid and fire to corrode the image and create a strong visual contrast that serves to show the reality of the deterioration he has observed.
“I also used acid and fire to take us back and forth between the reality of the present and the process of degradation that is yet to come.”
-Seif Kousmate