Lalla Essaydi: An Interview
I first came across the work of Lalla Essaydi two years ago, and like many others I was immediately entranced. Lalla's international success over the last few years is no surprise. Of course a number of different aspects appealed to me: the combination of the beautiful mix of subtle tones, the carefully composed compositions with references to nineteenth-century Orientalist paintings, and the patterns produced by the extraordinary calligraphy created by just henna. But these are not just pretty photographs. It was the hidden meanings (hidden for a Western male, at least) behind the beautiful fagades that, for me, took these works to another, altogether more important level. It was this interest that led me to offer Lalla a place in a group show of Middle Eastern and Arab art we were planning for this autumn. I met Lalla for the first time in New York this March to discuss the show, and it was while she was showing me her whole body of work, and explaining many of the complex meanings behind her works, that I decided to change my offer and propose a solo show. At the time of writing, this exhibition, her first solo show in the UK, has just opened to extraordinary interest. It has been reviewed with great acclaim in numerous British and overseas broadsheets, and I hope will establish her name in Western Europe. We are taking a large number of her pieces to an art fair in Abu Dhabi later this year. I will leave the explanation of Lalla's work to the artist herself. Reproduced here is the text of an e-mail interview I conducted with her during the summer, and I trust that her thoughtful and beautifully expressed answers, together with the reproductions of her work, lead you to an appreciation of Lalla Essaydi's extraordinary talents. Ray Waterhouse: You come from a painting background—how important and influential is that training for how you make your photographs?