Chromatic Awards, an international competition of color photography, has named multimedia artist Alia Ali 2019 Photographer of the Year. The deciding photograph was ‘Constellation’ from Ali’s FLUX Series. The jury awarded it the Grand Prize Selection.
Alia is a Yemeni-Bosnian-American multi-media artist. To shoot FLUX, she traveled to eleven regions of the world over nine months. During this time she collected photographs and met with artists who made the wax fabrics shown in the winning picture. Alia is based in Los Angeles. Prior to moving to California, she resided in Marrakech for seven years. During this time she met Hadia Temli, the owner of Marrakech’s Galerie Siniya 28. In 2017, Hadia invited Alia to return to the red city and present her work from Borderland, the first collection Alia created after her world journey.
In a 2017 interview with Alia about Borderland, Alia describes the photography and installation involving fabric. “Borderland was inspired by Borders. Borders to me are something that is manmade. They enact a sense of violence on the communities that live within that proximity.” Ali removes all categorization from her images to engage the viewer’s curiosity and leave them with a sense of wonder whether the images are male or female. Her works do not list a region of where the photographs were taken or a name. She invites the viewer to interact with them with the intention to create a relationship with the fictitious persons.
On December 22, 2019, Alia presented the FLUX series and the winning “Constellation” at Galerie Siniya 28 in Marrakech.
Galerie Siniya 28 is a Moroccan art gallery located in the Gueliz arts district that features, local and international emerging artists.