Translating Silence: Visual Poetry & Portraiture with Rabab Faisal

The winning photo was taken during a moment of deep reflection in a setting full of contrasts. It held both silence and strength. It represents my ongoing commitment to telling stories from the margins, stories often overlooked. Receiving this award affirms that honest, heartfelt photography has the power to resonate globally, no matter how humble or distant its origin.

I look for the image that stays with me. The one that makes you pause, return to it, and feel something unspoken. It must carry emotional weight, even beyond its technical elements. That’s the image I chose.

Simple curiosity about light, about faces that seemed to carry stories without speaking. The camera became a new way of seeing and feeling the world around me.

I’m drawn to conceptual and documentary portraiture because it allows me to merge thought and emotion, meaning and detail. It offers space for layered visual storytelling.

I use the Canon Mark III with fast prime lenses like the 50mm f/1.2. This setup gives me beautiful depth, flexibility in natural light, and strong detail. My favourite feature is how it handles light—it helps me create poetic, emotional imagery that feels alive.

A quiet sense of wonder, something that gently awakens a memory or emotion. I hope my photos touch something personal in the viewer, even if they can’t explain why.

Patience. Waiting for the moment that wouldn’t repeat itself. I had to be fully present, fully alert, and trust that the moment would come and that I would recognise it when it did.

Rural Sudan. It has a pulse of its own, a quiet rhythm that reveals the depth of people and the raw poetry of everyday life.

Life itself. My personal experiences taught me that images aren’t made by the eye alone; they’re shaped by feeling. I’ve also been inspired by photographers who combine beauty with responsibility, those who photograph with intention.

Present your work as a declaration of presence, say to the world, “This is me. This is my voice.” Don’t chase perfection. Focus on the truth. Awards are looking for new perspectives, not just loud ones

Consistency is more important than perfection. Don’t wait to master everything. Shoot, try, make mistakes, and learn. An honest image is more powerful than a flawless one.

It’s an extension of the emotion I captured, not a transformation. I edit to preserve the essence of the moment, not to overpower it. Every touch must serve the story.

AI will change a lot; it already has. It opens new doors for creation and archiving. But the soul of a photograph will always come from the human behind the lens. AI is a tool, not a replacement.

I would document elderly women from diverse cultures, sitting in their homes, surrounded by quiet. Those moments before action, when life is paused, often hold entire histories in a single look.