I long believed this craft could be learned. I've come to understand that it must be unlearned, with every project. Each story asks its own question, and the answer is never the same — a historical fresco does not breathe like a social drama, war does not have the pulse of a reconstructed era. So I do not arrive with a signature. I arrive with an ear. I listen to the project, its time, its silences, its way of breathing — and I try to find the light that already belongs to it, the one that was only waiting for a gaze to reveal itself. My only talent, if it exists, is not to stand in its way.

I believe there is, in a face, an hour of the day, a true setting, enough beauty to fill a frame. Nothing to invent — everything is already there, you just have to know how to wait for the moment when it reveals itself. The best light is the one you don't notice. The best camera, the one you forget. The equipment, the technical choices, all that expertise you spend years building — its only purpose, in the end, is to disappear at the right moment. What must remain is the emotion. Everything else is merely a means of not betraying it.

In twenty-five series and five feature films, I have mostly learned not to know. Every shoot has taken me back to zero, and it is this starting over that keeps me alive: Nouba, Ghasaq, Flashback, Sondos 2, Swords of Arabia, Abtal Al Rimal — so many worlds to learn to see anew. None of the directors I have worked with taught me the same thing — some speak in images, others in silences, others still cannot name what they are looking for until they see it appear on screen. Each taught me to listen differently — collaboration with them was never an order given, but a question asked together. Light is not imposed. It is shared.

ARRI Alexa 35 · ARRI Mini LF · RED V-Raptor · RED HELIUM
Signature Primes · Cooke S8 · Cooke Anamorphic · Zeiss Supreme