Sama: A New Photograph Heading to Tirana, Albania

A photograph called Sama is heading to Tirana, Albania.

A mosque minaret rising as a dark silhouette against a turbulent, layered sky, the clouds pulling apart as light breaks through from behind.

Sama (سماء / سماع). In Arabic, one word holds both sky and heaven. A breath away, another means listening. The minaret calls upward. The clouds part. The light comes through, as if the sky leaned in to hear.

This photograph is part of the next chapter of the STRIPE story, and it is one of the first images from that body of work to be shown publicly. There will be more to share as the project develops, but for now, Sama goes out into the world first.

The exhibition is GuruShots Your Exhibition Shot, and it is exactly what the name suggests: work selected from the GuruShots platform that has earned its place in a physical gallery. TULLA Culture Center is one of Tirana's leading contemporary cultural spaces, and the opening night runs from 7pm to 9pm on Friday 19 June 2026.

Albania is not a destination I would have predicted for this photograph when I made it in Saudi Arabia. That is the point, of course. The work goes where it goes.

If you are in Tirana on 19 June, the exhibition is open to the public. I would love to know if anyone makes it.

This book is an independent artistic project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).

Lastly a sneak peek at another ethereal sky above the same minaret which will also feature in STRIPE II but as of today I haven't submitted it for exhibitions yet. I can't wait to see where these photographs travel to!