Faisal Almalki is one of those gifted people who we have been monitoring for some time now, watching how fast and steady he has been climbing the ladder of success as a world class renowned photographer.

We had this chat done over VOIP* with Faisal about his passion that we call photography.

What’s Up: Alright, hold on let me test the recording here…Say something… just to test.

Faisal Almalki: Should the legendary “Testing 1…2…3” do the job?

WU: Great that should do…Okay now we are ready, so I am looking at your site right now, I like the picture on your ‘About Me’ page, where was that, London?

FM: You know this is the least page update on the whole site**, I would rather focus on pictures than on myself, and yes it was taken in London by a photographer who is also a friend of mine.

WU: So take us to the beginning, how did a phenomenon like you start?

FM: I hope this is not going to make it to print (laughs). This is awkward, I think on some level, I have always enjoyed photography, but I never knew back then that it would turn into a serious hobby or even an interest. Since I was a kid, I have always had a camera with me, just shooting randomly, nothing artistic by any means. I remember when I was in school, I used to have a new hobby every year or so, I used to write to Majed magazine, I collected stamps, I wanted to write poetry, I tried many things. I have always wanted to do something related to art or media, something creative. I even wanted to become an actor, or a director or a singer, but you can tell by my voice that that didn’t go far.

WU: (Laughing) sorry about that but you have an engaging way of putting things in perspective.

FM: Beside all that I have always wanted to do something artistic, I always thought that doing something creative is never a career, it should be something on the side. I ended up studying marketing at university, since I loved how interesting advertising is I thought why not combine business with creativity and I finally discovered that I could make a living by being creative!

WU: I think that ‘advertising and marketing’ is one of those great careers, since it takes more to communicate a message.

FM: Absolutely! In 2001, I started working with Saatchi & Saatchi, then I moved to JWT, then Grey and now I am working as a marketing manager in an Investment Bank. Throughout that time, I got many opportunities to travel abroad, whether on holidays or on the job shooting commercials. I had always felt guilt whenever I saw beauty around the world and not shared it with my family, and that is when I bought my first digital camera.

In 2005, I took a look at all the pictures I had collected, and I discovered that I had always tried to shoot things in a creative way; I discovered that this is how I look at things, looking beyond the picture, seeing what is really behind it. I found that some of my pictures had an artistic touch to them. By the end of 2005, I started researching photography for the very first time and found an American/Canadian forum that deals with photography; I joined and started to share my images to see how these photographers would react to my images, and that is how it all started.

WU: That’s very interesting especially the part where you opened up to others in order to judge your work while you’re still unsure about it.

FM: Luckily they liked my work. They helped me with pointers on taking better pictures, but overall they gave me the support I needed to feel comfortable about photography. Now when I look back at those pictures, I see their weakness, but back then those photographers helped me when I was still starting up and encouraged me. I think they saw the potential.

On the first day of 2006, I bought my very first semi-professional camera; since then I’ve become a serious photographer.

WU: I am browsing over your site again, I like the way you categorized your work, and I can see you’re covering many styles and genres, but what type of photography do you mostly like to do?

FM: Well as you can see on my site, about 70% of my work falls under the abstract, and architectural genre, since I find myself to be a very urban person, I love cities, buildings, windows, and patterns. Other photographers call me the abstract person. I do shoot other genres, but I still find the passion in abstracts and architecture photography.

WU: How many exhibitions have you taken part in so far?

FM: I joined many exhibitions all around the world, but in most cases they were the contest based galleries. My work was shown in a few galleries in New York, in the National Geographic & PDN contest, World In Focus in 2007 2008, The Lucie Awards – which is considered ‘the Oscars’ of photography – in 2007 and 2008. I was also in the PX3 in Paris, now after winning the Masters Cup, I get to tour the whole world to feature my work, not sure where exactly right now, but I have been showcasing my work in LA, Qatar, Istanbul, Luxembourg, Austria, to name but a few.

WU: Do you consider yourself as a professional photographer, in terms of selling your work, or even getting job requests?

FM: I think I am fortunate enough to treat photography as a passion, I am not a professional photographer, and when I enter any competition I always participate in the non-professional section since I don’t make a living out of photography. I really can’t see myself as someone who would shoot typical commercial photography. The other way of becoming a pro-photographer is selling pictures as fine art photographs. I only got one assignment to do a “commercial assignment” when I worked with SAGIA (Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority), we had an interesting chemistry. I wanted to shoot their building, while they wanted me to shoot it, and that is how they asked me to do the job. I really enjoyed doing it. I think it is very rare to work on such a level of understanding in the Middle East, but if I do get a chance like the one I got with SAGIA, I will definitely be interested.

WU: I remember interviewing a Saudi photographer in our Riyadh edition of What’s Up, who told me about how hard it is to shoot in public places, since some people don’t mix well with photography. Do you face some issues while photographing here?

FM: I would love nothing more than to go out and shoot whether here in Riyadh or Jeddah, or anywhere around the Kingdom, but that is very difficult, and that is because of two main reasons, the first is that we as Saudis are private people, we don’t like to be on the record or exposed, this is something deeply rooted in our own culture. The second reason is because, officially, photography wasn’t allowed in the past.

Two years ago things changed, we got a permit from the Ministry of Interior and the Saudi Commission for Tourism & Antiquities, allowing anyone to take photos of any public places unless stated otherwise with a clear “No Photography” sign. Now the real problem is convincing the officer on the street that such a permit does exist; I even walk around with a printout that any photographer can get from the Commission for Tourism’s site (www.scta.gov.sa), since they want to spread this. But till now, police on the street won’t believe me even when I show them the paper.

I really find it painful not to photograph here in my country, I see all this beauty around me yet my hands are bound not to use a camera in public. I would love to photograph Al Haram in Makkah for example.

Since I started photography, two things changed in my life, I first started to see Riyadh as an interesting city, when in the past I used to think it was boring and the second is that I used to think that there is nothing much to show the world right here, now I think that our country is a gold mine, where we have so many stories and sites we can show the whole world.

WU: Do you travel to photograph?

FM: Ever since I started photography, any destination I travel to is for the sake of taking shots there; so now I travel to shoot.

Henri Cartier-Bresson a photographer who I respect once said that photography isn’t a hobby or a passion, it is a way of life. I started to feel that in the past couple of years, where even if I didn’t have a camera with me, I still saw things in a different way. It could get annoying at times when you’re in a business meeting or a family gathering and all you can think about is framing pictures, but as I said you start to live it. For now I shoot photographs like no one is watching, I enjoy doing that.

* VOIP: Voice Over Internet Protocol.

Link: www.Exactish.com