My name is Riyadh Alsehli, a film photographer based in Riyadh currently, but i love traveling.
I got my first camera at 12, a Nikon D3200 gifted by my mom when we moved from Saudi Arabia to the US. I didn’t think much of it at the time.
Like most things, I got bored of it until college.
I took an intro to film photography class and something clicked. I’d stay in the darkroom until closing, completely obsessed.
It was the first time I truly felt passionate about something.
Then COVID hit and that passion faded. But in my junior year, feeling lost and disconnected, I picked up my camera again.
That small decision changed everything. I even worked at a local film lab just to understand the process better.
My love for photography reached a high point in New Zealand, a dream trip I tried to capture on film knowing no photo could fully do it justice.
Since then, I’ve been chasing that feeling again, trying to build a life around photography.
NYC is full of images waiting to be captured but I’m after more than just nice pictures. I want to tell stories, quiet ones, forgotten ones, human ones, through light and grain. That’s what film means to me.
If I can inspire someone to start their own journey, no matter the gear or budget, that’s enough.