Omar Sfeir: Pushing Boundaries Through Artistic Expression
Infused with psychological depth and velvety aesthetics, Omar Sfeir’s photographic work delivers a unique interpretation of reality and the human condition.
Beirut.com sat down with the young photographer for a firsthand glance at his artistic evolution and future aspirations.
How did your photography work evolve over the years? Everybody has past memories. And with these memories, we create stories. Stories can definitely alter lives, even slightly. My family’s stories, my personal experiences, and people I’ve met, hearing their stories and watching their behavior have affected me. The passion I had when I first started never decreased, and nothing has changed except that now I realize that art isn’t just a matter of fun, it’s a healing process that helps you extract your energy, speak your heart out and express your pain, gloom and dreams. Now my work is about humans, and their deep feelings. All of my work is created in an environment full of aesthetics, where my models take different characters, are always part of the set, and go through different emotional phases. In my photography, I paint with lights, create sets and costumes for each theme. My sets are real yet ethereal. They may be dark sometimes but full of light and prospect at the same time.
What initially inspired you to venture into photography? During childhood, my camera, theater costumes, brushes, and paint buckets were my only refuge. At age 13, I used to go with a bunch of friends on road trips and adventures in nature, for the purpose of discovering new places, so we used to spend our time in abandoned houses, misty forests. This is when I started photographing my friends with my digital camera. I was having so much fun, and my photographic work got positive feedback when I started posting them online and I also had support from people around me who were passionate about art and eager to collaborate on new shootings. So I started working on themed shoots.
What sets your photographic approach apart from others? Each person has a certain past, goes through a set of emotions and actions that transform our being and takes it on a journey of several phases, when the artist shows his vision, expresses sincerely his thoughts and puts his authentic feelings in it he will achieve the uniqueness. As for me I talk my heart out in the work I do, and try to be as much sincere and loyal to my perception. I have learnt through experiences that it’s not only a matter of aesthetics only; for me the most important is to transfer a message, a feeling.
Where does your motivation to keep going stem from? As I mentioned before, I have a lot to express, I can’t extract them in anything other than my art. Once you start expressing your heart out through your pictures, u never stop because in life you go through a lot of phases and each time you have something new to say, a new feeling to let out, every time you decide to take a picture there is a different thing which inspires you, By this I can say that photography is an unlimited adventure which can never stop. That encourages you to keep going without knowing where it is going to lead you, so this passion encourage you to work hard in order to reach a level you can’t see or define but aim to seek it .
Tell us about your upcoming projects. Through my experience and my studies in the art field, I have come to understand that I rarely have had the opportunity to invest my work in a humanitarian cause. I was always oriented towards the Parnassian idea “art for art’s sake”. Seeing the world shaken by so many insecurities – physical, psychological, social insecurities among others – made me rethink the purpose of my work. There will be a message in each project I take, even if it’s commercial. I am working now on mixing humanitarian work and art, I can’t talk about it now because I have nothing concrete yet. I’m also working on editorials of different clothing brands and designers.
To discover more of Sfeir’s work, you can check out his Facebook page.
