Sara Al Obaidly (b.1987; Doha, Qatar) is a photographer of Qatari-British heritage based in the UK.
Self-initiated projects explore the varying political, philosophical and social issues we face today, capturing images that present a truth, a reality, a human warmth.
Nominated in 2021 for the prestigious Prix Pictet Award the world’s leading prize for photography & sustainability. Winner of the ‘Artist of the Year’ Award and ‘Cover of the Year’ Award from Grazia Arabia. Al Obaidly’s portrait photography has been selected twice for exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery, London for their leading annual competition the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize (2014 & 2016). Her work has been extensively exhibited internationally in museums and galleries and has been featured in TIME, Vogue Italia, Harper’s Bazaar, Grazia Arabia, Creative Review, Le Monde, and on TIME’s ‘LightBox’ in ‘22 of this Year’s Best Portraits’ 2014. Al Obaidly received an honorary mention in the Life Framer Awards in 2016 under the theme ‘Youthhood’. Winning artist residency places, at the International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York, USA (2019) and the Doha Fire Station, Qatar (2015). In 2020, Al Obaidly opened her first solo show ‘What Remains’ exhibiting photographic works, film installation, sound design, and sculpture.
In addition to photography, Al Obaidly is an emerging filmmaker having received training from the prestigious French film school La Fémis, Paris in 2016 and won a place at DFI’s Short Screenwriting Lab in 2018. She is currently the writer/director of her first documentary film project ‘Hitch 60’ winning funding for the film in both short and feature-length formats.