Sahar Alsawaf

Artist Statement

This photo series is a deeply personal journey into war, exile, and memory—seen through the eyes of women in the diaspora. Using analog film and carefully staged portraits, I work with masks of iconic Arab and Iranian women—like Fairuz and Googoosh—to give shape to the shared traumas and stories passed down in our families. Alongside my Iranian friends, whose families carry similar histories of displacement, we create images that imagine what womanhood might have looked like without war. These portraits live in Oregon’s tulip fields, riverbeds, and rose gardens—landscapes that remind us of the places we come from, our birthlands.

Artist Bio

Sahar al-Sawaf (she/her) is an Iraqi-American filmmaker, visual artist, and photographer based in Oregon. As an Iraqi woman, her work explores the entanglements of war, memory, displacement, and identity—delving into Arab heritage, Muslim faith, and the immigrant experience in America through a deeply personal lens. Born in Saudi Arabia and raised in Lebanon and Iraq, she fled to California just before the Gulf War. Her multidisciplinary practice spans documentary filmmaking, animation, and analog photography—mediums she uses to amplify voices often left out of dominant narratives, particularly those of Middle Eastern women navigating the aftermath of conflict.

Ghosts in Exile Series, title: Grey Gardens, Persian Versian, 2025