We had the good fortune of connecting with Ebtihal Shedid and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ebtihal, looking back, what do you think was the most difficult decision you’ve had to make?
Admitting to myself that I am unhappy in a career I invested more than 10 years in. Recognizing that circumstances and interests change and that I need to accept that I wasn’t as good as I hoped to be, which is fine if I was ready to work on my weaknesses and I wasn’t ready, for a lot of reasons. I left my career as a translator and started teaching myself photography. Taking this step in my mid-thirties and in a city I just moved to, was a very hard thing to do. I didn’t think about it too much back then, I just did it.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
In my work I am weaving my experiences as a literary and theater translator, the four languages I speak and my experience from working production in theater. I come to this career a bit later and as some kind of an outsider, so I am not necessarily acting within specific boundaries but rather going in and out, pushing and pulling and as a result I am hoping to create my own language. Art is translation too. I am carving my own place and building my own home. My work is a poetic pursuit of home and belonging.
The biggest challenge is to trust my gut, to not question or wonder if I will fit or be accepted. It’s hard to disregard this voice that keeps telling me I need to play by some rules.
The way I deal with this voice is that I say: I am only playing, I just want to see how this looks like. Once the piece is done, it’s done and seeing the result usually encourages me to keep going.
The most important thing I learned is that you need to keep making, working, failing, making, working and failing some more.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am currently based in SF. The place I would always take people to would be Golden Gate Park. There is always a new spot to explore. We would eat in Tu Lan and have drinks at Benders. A long walk in SF offers the best entertainment in my opinion.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I owe a lot of people for being where I am at now. Today I would like to give a shoutout to my friend and amazing artist Polina Tereshina.
She was is the first person I made friends with when I moved to the US and she was my first contact to art in the US.

Website: www.ebtihalshedid.com

Instagram: ebti_shedid

Linkedin: Ebtihal Shedid

Other: vimeo: https://vimeo.com/ebtishedid

Image Credits
Portrait: Anna Rotty All other images are mine.

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