Artistic Journey
Nazhad is a British-Kurdish photographer and documentary filmmaker, born in South Kurdistan amid poverty, war, and genocide. His early dream of becoming a pianist was silenced, yet the rhythm of art never left him. The tones of the piano led him to theatre, and from there, to the streets, the truest stage where people became his actors and light and shadow his set.
From theatre to photography and later to documentary film, Nazhad has followed the same melody, exploring humanity through movement, emotion, and the untold stories that dwell between silence and sound.
Artistic Philosophy
Three ideas guide Nazhad’s creative vision, Face, Street, and Home.
As a child, he learned to see the world through the faces around him, family, neighbours, and strangers who carried entire stories in a single glance. He loved the streets, where life spoke its raw truth through ordinary people moving through the rhythm of the day. And he cherished home, where warmth, safety, and belonging shaped his earliest sense of self. Yet all of them were taken too soon. Faces disappeared through exile and loss, streets were shattered by conflict, and home slipped away with the absence of family, the moments, the simple nearness that makes a life.
Since then, these three ideas have become his lifelong companions. In his art, they are not only symbols of absence but forces of resilience and renewal. Through his lens, he searches for the traces of what was broken and the quiet beauty that still chooses to remain.
Education & Teaching Background
After studying Theatre Directing for five years at the Sulaimani Institute of Fine Arts, Nazhad joined Royal Holloway, University of London, where he completed a Master’s degree in Documentary Film. He later earned a PhD in Art and Media from Shanghai University, continuing to explore how visual storytelling bridges memory, identity, and meaning.
Teaching has been a central part of Nazhad’s creative life since 1996, spanning drama, photography, and documentary film, shaped by decades of work across the UK, the Middle East, and China.
He began his teaching journey in Iraqi Kurdistan, leading drama and photography workshops through Save the Children, followed by extensive visual education work with the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), where he taught drama, film, and photography in nearly 500 village schools across the region.
In Liverpool, Nazhad taught drama for three years in schools through the Greenhouse Project and later worked with the Greenbank Project, teaching creative visual communication and leading workshops for young people with special needs.
Through the Long Journey Home Project in the East Midlands, he taught photography and filmmaking in more than 50 primary and secondary schools over five years. With Banner Theatre Company in Birmingham and the West Midlands, he continued to teach documentary filmmaking and creative photography to high school students while contributing to the company’s multimedia productions.
For nearly a decade, Nazhad has also taught photography and documentary film at universities across the Middle East and China, deepening his understanding of how images reflect culture, perception, and truth.
Today, his broad teaching background forms the foundation of his international photography workshops and Masterclasses, where education, creativity, and storytelling come together to inspire new ways of seeing the world.
Publications
Nazhad has published eight books, spanning both photography collections and theoretical studies on photography. His publications explore street culture, humans ,identity, and the philosophy of seeing through the lens.
● 101 Beads: Kurdistan in War
● Hands of Refusal
● Aching Light
● Dreaming Shanghai
● Mum’s Album
● Moments, Portrait Photography Studies
● Moments, Photography Composition
Exhibitions & Screenings
Since 2000, Nazhad’s artwork has been exhibited and screened internationally, spanning photography, documentary film, and theatre. Selected highlights include:
Photography & Film Exhibitions
London National Portrait Gallery
London Watermans Cinema
Liverpool FACT Cinema
Manchester FACT Cinema
Nottingham Broadway Cinema
Sheffield Documentary Festival
London Urban Arts Showcase
Northampton Nanoplex
Leicester’s Orton
Nottingham New Art Exchange
University of Nottingham
Nottingham City Arts
Leicester’s Y Theatre
University of Sulaimani
Sulaimany Polytechnic University
Nottingham Central Library
Library of Birmingham
Theatre Productions
From 2005 to 2010, Nazhad worked on three multimedia productions with Banner Theatre Birmingham: Strangers in Paradise Circus, They Get Free Mobiles, Don’t They?, and Wild Geese.
He produced documentary films and photographs that were featured within the company’s live performances. His visual work was projected behind the shows, blending documentary imagery with music and theatre to create Banner’s distinctive multimedia storytelling style.
Selected Performance Venues:
Community venues across Birmingham and Solihull, England — including Aston, Billesley, Castle Vale, Chelmsley Wood, Great Barr, Hamstead, Handsworth, Kings Norton, Moseley, Northfield, Perry Barr, Sheldon, Sparkhill, and Turves Green. Additional performances were held at Cockpit Theatre, London; Fusion Project, Truro; Cape Cornwall School, St Just / Penzance; Treviglas College, Newquay; Roseland Community School, Tregony / Truro; Ferryhill Business & Enterprise College, County Durham; The Customs House, South Shields; The Round Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne; Stockton Sixth Form College, Stockton-on-Tees; Bede Centre, Sunderland; Sports and Social Club, Pontefract; YMCA, Barnsley; Whitby Pavilion, Whitby; Unity Centre, Rotherham; St Mary’s Conference Centre, Sheffield; Wortley Hall, Sheffield; Shrewsbury Sixth Form College, Shrewsbury; Ukrainian Social Club, Huddersfield; Miners Institute, Wrexham, Wales; and East Ward Labour Club, Bradford. Wild Geese was also performed internationally at Luton Library Theatre (England); George Luscombe Theatre, University of Guelph (Canada); National Arts Centre’s Alberta Scene Festival, Ottawa (Canada); and the May Week Festival, Edmonton (Canada).
Media Features
Nazhad’s work and publications have been featured on major media platforms including:
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BBC Radio — Interview with Alan Clifford on 101 Beads: Kurdistan in War
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BBC TV (East Midlands) — Feature on 101 Beads: Kurdistan in War
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Nott TV — Discussion about 101 Beads: Kurdistan in War
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Kurdsat TV — Interview about war photography during the ISIS conflict
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LeftLion Magazine — Feature on 101 Beads: Kurdistan in War
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GKT TV — Multiple interviews about his photography books and documentary work.