STRIPE: How a Pattern on the Ground Became a Bestseller

It was a freshly laid band of yellow paint cutting across a grate in the street. I had walked that street a hundred times. That day, something about the way the line cut across the metal demanded my attention.

Oasis Apartments intersecting with sky, appeared like an oasis above me. Sand dunes ensconced by pools of blue sky.

The geometry of it. The fact that nobody had intended it to be beautiful, and yet there it was.

I photograph the community I have called home for years. The streets repeat. The houses are identical. Even the furniture inside the homes are the same. For a working artist, that

kind of environment is either the end of creativity or the best training you'll ever get. I chose to treat it as a bootcamp.

KAUST villa captured in the early afternoon curating shadows and light perfect for a gallery wall.

That moment became STRIPE: Urban Minimal Geometric. Every image in the book was made with a phone camera, photographing the same community I had lived in for years. No studio. No special equipment. Just a trained eye, a phone, and the decision to look at the ordinary differently.

The book ranked as an Amazon Number 1 Hot New Release and is now available in more than 20 countries. The way it travelled tells its own story. The community I photograph is home to people from 130 nationalities. When they leave, they take STRIPE with them. It has been carried across the world by people who understand what it means to see a place clearly before you go.

Since publication, images from the series have been recognised with international photography awards, featured in Amateur Photographer Magazine UK, and exhibited at the PWP Small Works show at BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York, as part of PWP's 50th Anniversary and at the Valid World Hall in Barcelona Spain. Upcoming exhibitions and magazine features will soon be announced for Canada, Vietnam and Albania!

STRIPE is available on Amazon. If you would like to talk about a print, a signed copy, Talks, or a commission inspired by the series, get in touch.

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).