Building a Massive Portrait Archive Of Arab Icons. Meet Abdullah Alshehri

by Alexandra Mansilla

Building a Massive Portrait Archive Of Arab Icons. Meet Abdullah Alshehri

16 Jul 2025

Photo: Abdullah Al-Shahri

More than 15 years in photography, thousands of people captured, and always a deep passion for black-and-white images — Abdullah Alshehri is truly a leading figure in Saudi Arabian photography. He began at a time when Saudi photography was still just developing, and over the years, he has become the person who is building a portrait archive of Arab icons, capturing faces and personalities who define the region. Among the highlights of his career is an unforgettable project with Maradona, where he was able to photograph not just the legend everyone knows, but Diego himself.

Let’s get into Abdullah’s story — and the stories behind some of his most iconic shoots.

— Abdullah, you started your photography journey in 2008, right? I would love to hear more about what came before that. Where were you born? Who are your parents? What was your household like? Tell me everything, please!

— Of course! So, there are ten of us siblings altogether. We come from a very middle-class family — my father worked hard his whole life to provide for us, and although he didn’t realise it, he was quite democratic in his approach to parenting. He allowed us to become whoever we wanted to be.

Most of my brothers are engineers — a lot of them in computer engineering — and we even have a pilot in the family. I’m the only one who chose something different and became an artist. I always knew I wanted that, and honestly, I have always felt a little different from the rest.

I was always the kid who was outside, exploring, getting into a bit of trouble, going on adventures. Honestly, I was the “bad” one compared to my brothers. I was rarely at home, always out in the world.

I started working early. When I was 15 or 16, I had small jobs, and my first official job was at 20, working with the army (just as a civilian employee).

After that, I realised I wanted something more from life. So I quit that job, stayed at home, unsure of what to do next. That is when I found my father’s digital camera — he had bought it for his business. With a lot of free time, I began reading the manual and got really interested in how it worked.

I taught myself using Google and YouTube, since there weren’t many resources in Arabic back then. I picked up the basics quickly and started experimenting with photography. I travelled, tried shooting landscapes, cityscapes, lifestyle, and street photography, but I didn’t quite connect with any of those styles.

Eventually, I went back to something I had always loved — movie posters. I got curious about how they were made, which led me to try portrait photography, studio lights, and working with digital images. After that, I just kept going and never looked back.

— Do you remember any movie poster that inspired you?

— Oh yes! Terminator Part 2 really made a big impression on me — there was something about that mix of human and machine that I found both scary and fascinating. I remember thinking, “I want to create something like that.” So around the same time, I started experimenting with Photoshop.

From there, I really got into portrait photography. I was trying to find my own style, since there were so many Western photographers I looked up to, but I didn’t know how to make portraits like theirs. So I kept experimenting, always searching for what would make my work stand out.

Photo: Abdullah Al-Shahri

— How did you figure out what style you wanted to shoot in?

— Actually, here is something not many people know about Saudi Arabia back then. In 2008, there really weren’t any Saudi photographers, especially not portrait photographers. The only ones we had around were mainly foreign. I remember seeing the work of one Moroccan-French photographer in particular, Mr. Karim Ramzi.

When I saw his portraits — especially the ones of Saudi princes — it just clicked for me. He became a huge inspiration for me. I loved his use of black and white, the way he focused on hands, and the intimacy of his portraits. There is this kind of black-and-white, almost artistic portraiture. That is what drew me in and got me started.

It was a special time, honestly. I have always wanted to meet Karim in person, but I never got the chance. We are actually planning to try and visit him next month — just to say thank you. Not because he did anything for me directly, but because his work inspired me to find my own path. I just want to go back to my roots and show my appreciation.

— Also, I think that during a portrait photoshoot, it is really important to create a comfortable environment for the person you are photographing — to help them relax and make that real connection. Because if you don’t, I feel like the photo just won’t be genuine. How do you approach that? How do you make your subjects feel at ease and build that connection?

— I have always said I’m not just a photographer — I am kind of a shrink. I really listen to people. I spend time talking with them, giving them that extra ten minutes just to connect and hear their story.

Before any session, we always set up a quick call — just five minutes. I will ask them about their favourite colours, what they plan to wear, and whether they prefer black and white or colour photos. Because honestly, the outfits and backgrounds I choose can be totally different depending on the vibe. That little bit of communication before we shoot makes all the difference.

You know — being in front of a camera is always a little awkward. So I try to bring some humour into it, almost like I’m doing stand-up comedy during the shoot. I always tell people: “You’re not a model, you’re just a human being. We’re just trying to capture a little piece of who you really are — something genuine you can share with your people, your audience, or just keep for yourself.” For me, it is all about finding that real connection, and honestly, it always works.

Photo: Abdullah Al-Shahri

— The journey of an artist always has its ups and downs — you really have to work hard to carve out your own path and get your work out there. Was there a turning point for you — a moment, a person, or maybe a specific situation — that really made a difference and helped you move forward in your career?

— Oh yeah, my story is pretty different from most. At some point, many years ago, some friends convinced me to make an account on Twitter — a platform I didn’t even understand at first. Within six months, I became known as the portrait photographer. I started taking pictures for friends, not family, just friends of friends. There was this one guy, he is a huge food blogger now, but back then, he asked me to shoot his portrait for Twitter. I didn’t charge him anything; I just asked him to put my tag in his bio. That is it.

After that, things went wild. Suddenly, everyone wanted photos from “that Abdullah guy” — people were going crazy to book shoots. I must have photographed half of Saudi Twitter back then! This was all the way up to 2010, when Twitter really blew up here.

One day, Princess Ameera Al-Taweel tweeted that she was looking for a Saudi portrait photographer. Instantly, everyone on Twitter started tagging me in her replies.

That moment changed everything for me. Suddenly, everyone in Saudi Arabia wanted a portrait from Abdullah. There just wasn’t a culture of taking professional profile pictures for Twitter until then — I basically started that trend. Since then, everything in my life has been different. Now, I know so many names in media, production, cinema, art, culture.

My network started back in 2010, and being one of the first made a huge difference. So Twitter was a real turning point for me.

Photo: Abdullah Al-Shahri

— Now — Maradona! How did it happen?

— Maradona was always my dream. He was everything.

When the chance came to shoot him, I asked his team, “What’s your budget?” They told me the number, and I said, “You know what? I will pay extra — just to make sure this shoot is absolutely perfect.” They were happy with that. They sent my portfolio to Maradona, and he chose me. Not because I was famous, but because I had shot Messi — and, to him, that meant something.

That shoot was wild. Everyone in the studio was dancing, celebrating — nobody could believe it. It was a day I will never forget. And honestly, one of the smartest things I did was ask three or four videographers to record everything that happened during the session. I still have all that footage in my archive.

Shooting Maradona felt different. We spent four hours together in that session! And I didn’t feel like I was shooting the legend “Maradona.” I felt like I was photographing Diego — the person behind the legend. For me, those are two different people: there is Diego, and there is Maradona.

Now, I have more than 300 or 400 photos from that shoot — images nobody has ever seen. I’m keeping those photos safe. Someday, I will do something with them. I’m actually planning an exhibition in Dubai soon, just for this session.

Photo: Abdullah Al-Shahri

— How would you describe Diego that no one knows?

— He was so humble — so easygoing, so happy. He cared about everyone around him. I have met a lot of footballers in my career. I have met Messi, I have met pretty much any big name you can think of — Saudi or international. But Maradona was different. He was a king without a crown. Everyone knows who Maradona is, but he didn’t act like it. It was like he didn’t care about his own legend.

For me, I met Diego, not the legend “Maradona.” We talked about life, about how happy he was in Dubai.

He was wild. That day, he was telling us how he had just played a match the night before — a little four-on-four game — and he was actually mad about losing! I mean, he was 52 or 54 at the time, still super competitive, still crazy about football, still living life to the fullest.

Photo: Abdullah Al-Shahri

— Also, could you tell me about the photo of the little girl crying? Who is she?

— That photo is of a girl from Syria. This photo was taken for a charity event by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Riyadh with PAH for Syrian kids back in 2012–2013. I was invited to participate alongside other artists from Saudi Arabia to auction our work.

So I chose to meet this Syrian girl and others to photograph them and auction the photos, and all the money went to the PAH charity.

I asked this girl to share her story, and I remember she told us she had lost her mom and her sister. That is why she started crying, and I captured that exact moment — the grief and pain she was going through.

Back in 2012, none of us really understood what was happening in Syria, but after meeting those people, it really hit me. We ended up selling those images — around 60,000 riyals, which was a huge amount for me back then.

Photo: Abdullah Al-Shahri

— Oh, wow. There is also a photo that is completely different from the others — the artwork called Funeral, with a woman covered in white and blue paint, and with flowers. What is the story behind that piece?

— I moved from Riyadh to Jeddah back in 2015. That is when I really got introduced to the Saudi art scene. I started documenting it, looking at it both as a photographer and as an artist. Around that time, I also began to think more like an artist myself. I met a makeup artist named Aya Tariq (she’s Saudi, but based in New York), and we wanted to do something different together. She said, “I want to make a portrait, but I don’t want to show any faces. I want to paint something — can you help me create that?”

We started thinking about the concept of death. You know, there is that ancient Greek tradition — when someone died, they would place coins on the eyes, so when you reach the afterlife, you have money, because money is power. In Muslim culture, though, it is not about money — you will see flowers if you reach heaven, Jannah.

So, the project became about shifting that mentality — from the Greek idea of needing money for the afterlife to the Arab idea of reaching Jannah, where you are surrounded by beauty and flowers instead. That is what we wanted to capture in the work.

Photo: Abdullah Al-Shahri

— And what about that photo with the woman in traditional clothes and… a parrot?

— By the way, a really expensive parrot from the Amazon.

The woman in the photo is my friend, Mashael Fahad Al-Athel. She is basically my personal project in life — an artist who is obsessed with photography, just like me. We always end up on the same wavelength with ideas. At one point, I was getting tired of the usual pretty faces and wanted to shoot someone with real character. And Mashael, she is unique. She first asked me for a portrait back in 2010, and since then, I just couldn’t get her or her way of thinking out of my head.

She is known for never showing her face — she always wears a mask or does something to cover it. I could send you tons of her work: underwater shoots, shots in the studio, photos with birds — always creative, always hiding her face.

For this shoot, she wanted to work with birds, but specifically not falcons — they are too aggressive and not what we wanted. So we brought in six or seven different birds, but this parrot was perfect. If you look at the colored version of the shot, you will see why — the contrast between her and the bird is striking. And if you really pay attention, you will see that you get one eye from her, and one eye from the bird — it is all about the way they are both looking at you, that sense of connection in a single glance.

Photo: Abdullah Al-Shahri

— Now — Omar Souleyman!

— Yeah, I love this gentleman!

— What is he like?

— He is actually a very well-known artist here in Saudi. Whenever I want to hype myself up, I put his music on — specifically his song “Warni Warni”. I heard he was coming to Saudi Arabia for a festival, and I worked so hard to get his number, or at least reach someone from his team. Finally, I messaged him, introduced myself as a portrait artist, and told him that my audience (and the Saudi audience) would really appreciate it if he would come to my studio for a portrait session. He agreed and came by, and I wanted to shoot something simple but iconic.

Omar Souleyman never looks directly at the camera — that is his style — so I made a few portraits like that.

For me, it is always special to meet the people I really admire. Everyone I shoot, whether I post the photos on Instagram or not, there’s always this connection. I have to actually love their work and genuinely want them in my archive. That’s the main thing for me — it’s not about likes, tags, or reposts. If you check my Instagram, I don’t even post that much. It’s really about building a massive portrait archive of future icons from the Arab world, specifically for Saudi archive.

I have never flown out West just to photograph someone. I keep it here — in Saudi or Dubai, never beyond. Because if you fast-forward 20 years from now, I want to be the one holding this archive: the iconic names, the people who changed culture and the art industry on our side of the world. That is really my goal.

Photo: Abdullah Al-Shahri

— I also love your recent photoshoot with Baraa Alem! Was there any particular idea?

— Oh yes, exactly! This is a funny story. That actor played a character in Al Asha Street, one of the biggest TV shows on MBC. That character totally blew up. It became a meme all over the Arab world. He played a sweet, hopeless romantic who is completely in love with his girlfriend. Everyone who watched that series was obsessed with him. The big question was: Why did he leave her? People were going crazy over it.

When I did his portrait, I posted it with a caption — “I’m sorry, Awatif.” And the reaction in the comments was insane. People were dying, just so invested in this character’s heartbreak. I did that shoot before I even knew his character was going to die on the show, and I posted it right before that episode aired. So everyone was left wondering what would happen to him, and the timing made the photo explode online. It wasn’t even meant as a serious art project — more like, “let me show you how to create buzz with a character.” And it absolutely blew up, went everywhere on the internet that day.

Moments like that show you — if you know the right moment, you can win the whole internet for a day.

— You mentioned an exhibition about Maradona. When and where is it?

— Important correction: to Diego. I actually have two ideas for when to launch the exhibition. One option is to do it next year, which would be the 15th anniversary of the original photo session — that would be 2026. The other option is to wait and hold it on the exact date marking, however many years since Diego lived in Dubai, something special like that. I haven’t decided yet, but those are the main ideas.

The plan is to start the show in Dubai, then take it to Argentina, then Napoli, then Spain, and eventually bring it back to Saudi Arabia. That is the dream, and we are working on it — I have already got interest from people in the UAE who want to make it happen. The whole concept is to show Diego as he really lived in Dubai.

But I want this to be more than just a photo exhibition. It is going to be an art project, with a limited edition set of exhibition prints, and I will also make an artist book — because now, I publish books too, that’s a new part of my work.

That is also why I’m taking my time — it is a huge project, and linking my name with Diego Maradona in this way isn’t something I take lightly. It needs to be done right.

— We haven’t seen a lot of your photos of Diego yet. Are there any other photos that you haven’t shown anyone?

— Definitely, a lot. I have documented so many different lives, and I am talking about more than a thousand people! I think I am finally ready to put together an exhibition and a book that brings together all the characters I have photographed over the last 15 years. I truly want to bring all these portraits and stories together into one big project.

Photo: Abdullah Al-Shahri

— And finally, you recently made a book — “A Photographic Journey Through the Kingdom: Artists and the Spaces.” What is it about?

— Oh, it is truly a special project.

As I mentioned earlier, I have been documenting a lot of artists since 2015, and by 2020, I started wondering: Where did the Saudi art scene really begin? So I spent about two years researching, then travelled all over the country to photograph artists and painters right in their studios. In the end, I created a book about them. I documented 28 artists from across Saudi Arabia — true trailblazers, the first wave of contemporary artists here. The book is really about celebrating and appreciating these names, these pioneers.

It is a beautiful, very limited edition commissioned by the Ministry of Culture. Maybe next year we will do another print run for the public; we are still talking about that.

by Alexandra Mansilla