Gaylan Nazhad
Full CV & Synergy
Artistic Practice, Teaching & Collaboration
BA-Drama
MA-Documentary by Practice
PhD-Art and Media
Blurb
Gaylan Nazhad is a Kurdish-British artist working across photography and documentary film. His practice explores identity, displacement, and the subtle dynamics of urban and social interaction, examining the emotional and psychological spaces between people, place, and memory.
He began his career in 1992 as a television presenter in South Kurdistan before moving into theatre directing. His practice gradually shifted towards documentary filmmaking and photography, where he developed a sustained interest in lived experience and the complexities of everyday life.
Following his graduation from Royal Holloway, University of London, in 2009, he began teaching internationally, lecturing in photography and documentary practice at universities across the Middle East and China alongside his ongoing artistic work.
Artistic Vision
Photography and documentary film form the foundation of Nazhad's practice. Working through long term observation and close engagement with people and place, he explores how identity is shaped through memory, displacement, urban life, and everyday human experience.
His work is less concerned with documenting events than with revealing atmosphere, emotional presence, and the quiet tensions that exist beneath ordinary moments. Rather than offering fixed narratives or conclusions, his images and films invite viewers to inhabit spaces of uncertainty, where meaning unfolds slowly through gesture, light, silence, and the relationships between individuals and their surroundings.
At the centre of his practice is an ongoing interest in belonging, how it is constructed, disrupted, and continually redefined. His work embraces ambiguity, allowing complexity to remain unresolved while encouraging a sustained and personal encounter with the image.
Practice & Public Work
Nazhad's work has been exhibited and screened internationally since 2000. It has been presented at institutions including the National Portrait Gallery, London, Watermans Arts Centre, FACT Liverpool, Broadway Cinema Nottingham, Sheffield DocFest, New Art Exchange Nottingham, the University of Nottingham, and the Library of Birmingham, alongside exhibitions and screenings throughout the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and China.
His practice has also been featured by BBC Radio, BBC East Midlands, Notts TV, Kurdsat TV, and LeftLion Magazine, extending his work beyond galleries and cinemas into wider public and cultural conversations.
Alongside his artistic practice, Nazhad has lectured internationally, teaching photography and documentary practice at universities across the Middle East and China while continuing to develop long term photographic and film projects.
Publications
Nazhad is the author of seven books that bring together photography and critical writing. His publications examine the relationship between image, memory, and lived experience, using the book as a space where photographs and text unfold in dialogue rather than illustration.
Each publication develops from long term research and sustained engagement with its subject, exploring the emotional, social, and cultural dimensions of contemporary life through an observational and reflective approach. Together, they form an evolving body of work that extends his photographic and documentary practice beyond the exhibition space.
● 101 Beads: Kurdistan in War ▸
● Study: Beyond Documentary Photography
● Study: The Practice of Seeing
Documentary Films
Nazhad has produced and directed a body of documentary films that extend the thematic concerns of his photographic work, exploring identity, displacement, and crises through sustained, observational storytelling. His films translate complex social and cultural realities into immersive narratives, capturing both intimate human experience and broader societal contexts:
● The Last Bee
● Between Distance and Home
● Fragments of China
● Fatma
● Portrait of White
● There Is Always a Piece Missing
● Look Back in Silence
● The Phone Booth
● Madness
Theatre & Drama
Nazhad’s engagement with theatre began in 1989 at the Sulaimani Institution of Fine Arts, where he first performed on stage as part of the institution’s third-year annual festival. During this formative period, he worked with texts by major playwrights including William Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Eugène Ionesco, and Jean-Paul Sartre, developing a foundation in performance, direction, and experimental theatre practices.
Between 2005 and 2010, he collaborated with Banner Theatre in Birmingham on a series of multimedia productions, including Strangers in Paradise Circus, They Get Free Mobiles, Don’t They?, and Wild Geese. His documentary film and photographic work were integrated into live performances through projection and scenographic elements, creating an expanded form of storytelling that merges image, sound, and embodied performance. These productions toured extensively across the United Kingdom and internationally, including Canada, demonstrating the interplay between visual media and live theatre in exploring identity, displacement, and social experience.
“1989, Sulaimani Institution of Fine Arts, where 14 year old Gaylan performed on stage for the first time as part of the third-year annual festival.”
Education, Teaching & Collaboration
Nazhad’s practice is deeply connected to education and knowledge exchange. He studied Theatre Directing at the Sulaimani Institute of Fine Arts, completed an MA in Documentary Film at Royal Holloway, University of London, and later earned a PhD in Art and Media from Shanghai University. Teaching has been central to his work since 1996, spanning nearly three decades across the UK, the Middle East, and China.
He has worked with organisations including Save the Children and the Mines Advisory Group, delivering drama, film, and photography education across hundreds of schools in Iraqi Kurdistan. In the UK, he has taught through projects such as The Greenhouse Project, Greenbank Project, Banner Theatre, and Long Journey Home, engaging with young people, including those with special needs, across more than 50 schools. For nearly a decade, he has also lectured in photography and documentary film at university level, developing courses that connect visual practice with cultural, social, and ethical understanding.
Teaching Areas
His teaching and workshops focus on:
● Photography, documentary and portrait practice
● Ethics and responsibility in visual storytelling
● Photography within cultural and historical contexts
● Displacement and diaspora in visual narratives
● Lighting, composition, emotion and visual language
● Documentary film, conceptual and artistic approaches
● Developing creative vision and narrative structure
● Modern theatre practices
● Acting and directing techniques
● Theatre theory, including the work of Antonin Artaud
Beyond The Classrooms
His educational work extends beyond institutions into communities and social contexts. Through collaborations with organisations in the UK, he has brought photography, film, and theatre into schools as tools for dialogue, addressing themes such as identity, migration, and racism. Earlier work in Kurdistan focused on empowering communities through creative expression in the aftermath of conflict. Across all contexts, education is not separate from practice, but part of the same process of storytelling and engagement.
Commission & Collaboration
Nazhad is available for:
● Documentary film production and media commissions for broadcasters, cinema, and cultural organisations, blending cinematic storytelling with cross-cultural insight.
● Guest lectures, university teaching, workshops, and masterclasses, sharing practical experience, critical thinking, and an emphasis on narrative and storytelling.
● Collaborative artistic and research projects, including photographic projects for exhibitions, publications, and socially engaged programmes, as well as research partnerships, sponsorships, and professional training.
His approach bridges documentary, photography, and critical inquiry, producing meaningful narratives that engage with identity, culture, and contemporary social realities while delivering high-quality visual solutions for media and cultural organisations.
Contact
For collaborations, teaching, or commissions, please get in touch via email or phone.