Rasha Shammas

Rasha Shammas was born in June of 1972 and moved to England at the tender age of 5 where she grew up, first in London and then in the south of England in a place called the New Forest. Between the two places, she spent a year in Cyprus. She was educated in American schools.

She first caught the photography bug at the TASIS school. She then became an avid photographer.

After High School, she began her higher education in the States where she attended Bryn Mawr College. Her stay there only lasted for about six month before heading back to England to work with her father in his hotels in the New Forest. Her photography took a back seat in her life at this point since she no longer had access to a darkroom. She eventually went to a Hotel Management school at the Centre International de Glion in Switzerland, and after her graduation she went on to pursue what she thought would be her chosen career.

Fast forward a few years and she found her professional life somehow lacking. She moved back to Lebanon and ended up eventually opening a boutique where she designed, made and sold knitwear and hand made accessories. Great as it was, when the economy started taking a turn for the worse and PM Hariri was killed, she decided to cut her losses and take a break. That left her with the problem of figuring out what to do next.

She took a few trips to Europe and then came back to Beirut, still very much at loose ends until, one day, she found herself in Khoury Home. It was there that, for some reason, she bought her first digital SLR. She started happily snapping away and relearning the art of taking a good photograph. At about the same time, she went to the States, Boston. She took advantage of her location and free time and enrolled in some classes at the B.C.A.E. in order to explore her talents in the arts.

Time passed and she realized that she had developed a significant portfolio with a particular style, especially in her skyscapes. She decided to present her work to the world, put on an artistic exhibition and launch herself onto the web.