Bismillah News 
Princess Reem interview.
By HABIB SHAIKH
Princess Reem Al-Faisal, granddaughter of the late King Faisal, who started photographing from a very early age, has literally climbed hills, traversed rough terrain to get photographs, especially Haj photos.
"My entire work turns around one large subject which is the manifestation of the Divine in our world. I only photograph in B&W I follow no rule except those of Islamic philosophy in art. I do hunt for a picture by walking for hours," Princess Reem said in an interview.
"I like to define myself as a Muslim artist, sprung from my native Saudi culture and history. In my art I am seeking to show signs of the Divine in nature and in Man. For me, light is one of the many manifestations of God. Which He casts in our path through life to remind us of His constant presence in ourselves and in every place. Every photograph is a pattern of light and shade. For me, my photography is a way to praise God´s glory in the universe," she said.
She said that her professional career started around 20 years ago. She always wanted to study photography, so, when she got an opportunity, she went to Speos School in Paris, where she studied photography for about a year.
She graduated from Manarat High School in Jeddah, and studied Arabic literature in King Abdul Aziz University, before joining Speos.
She is one of the few women who have covered the Haj extensively. She found it to be an experience, which has changed her vision of the world and of herself. "I was able to gain great insight into the human psyche and racial differences. It allowed me to gauge both my physical and mental abilities. Other than being in a war zone there is nothing more strenuous than the Haj. One has no way of knowing beforehand what to expect from the people one is photographing or those who are working in the Haj," Princess Reem said.
"It is difficult to capture the Haj in text or visually since the Haj is larger than any possible description. No book or photograph can ever give the Haj its due. Even those who perform the Haj can never fully comprehend it," she said.
"From the first day of the Haj one is swept away by the sheer motion and size of it and you find yourself moving at another level of your consciousness. As you perform one ritual after the other you slowly discover the rhythm of the universe," she added.
Princess Reem said that even though the Haj is a collective event it is also a very personal one, for each of us finds the Haj he came looking for. It is not unusual to find ill mannered people. It is also very easy to find those who come only to fulfill a religious obligation without it changing anything essential in their life or behavior. "However, for most it is a moment of change and rebirth and it is hard to leave the Haj without it altering your personality forever," she said.
According to Princess Reem, the Haj is an excellent laboratory of human behavior and thinking. It demands only from those who attend it a unified physical action but the results are very different.
"I have seen the best and the worst in the Haj. I saw the old man who spends his life putting one dime upon another just to come to the Haj. I saw also the thieves who come to make their yearly earnings from it. I watched, as soldiers stood for hours on end in the searing sun with only the shade of a small umbrella while they breathed in the dust and fumes of thousands of busses and yet tried in all this human ocean to aid and help the weak, the lost and the tired. I spent days with Muttawifs who pass sleepless nights to facilitate the performance of the Haj," she recounted.
"From street sweepers to doctors to soldiers all of them silent heroes, forgotten by us every year and taken for granted. We tend to assume that since the Haj is a religious event, God also organizes it miraculously. In a way it is, for the Haj is beyond all effort or intelligence or technology. As I watched the throng of people cover the earth I realized it was a truly miraculous event beyond our collective control," she added.
Many of the Muttawifs she spoke with said they begin to prepare for the next Haj the minute the present one ends but in the end the Haj is beyond any organizational power. "Imagine the biggest army in the world, more than two million strong, speaking over two hundred languages and dialects with differing social backgrounds converging on a small city of a few hundred thousand. This army has to be provided with food, housing, hygiene and health care including the entire auxiliary, which serves and surrounds it. This army has to break camp several times in only four days, no more no less," she said.
Princess Reem said that she was told that the government brought world experts on traffic control to help them organize the movement of the Hujjaj (pilgrims) from Arafat to Muzdalifa — about fifteen kilometers, which has to be done in six hours. These experts studied all the possibilities and finally came back with their solution. They said the movement of all the Hujjaj from Arafat to Muzdalifa would take six days. "It was impossible to make them understand that it was a religious obligation and we could not exceed the allotted time span," she said.
Another aspect of the Haj, which attracted her attention, is the market in Arafat. Many Hujjaj fund their trip to Makkah by bringing with them native products from their lands. "You can find the best Iranian pistachio if they are in season in Arafat or parrots from Africa or High Tec binoculars from central Asia. You can then buy products that you would normally not find in Saudi Arabia," she said.
She was faced with every kind of human behavior, whether religious or traditional. Some came up to ask her to photograph them others shouted at her that what she was doing was against religion. "But most just ignored me worrying more about the state of their soul than about some woman photographer," she said.
Princess Reem said that she has encountered every kind of difficulty. "The worse is human ignorance," she added. But with a lot of will power and luck, has been able to take photographs of the pilgrimage.
"As far as I´m concerned for the foreseeable future the Haj is over. If Allah permits, my next project is just to photograph as much of the world as I can," she said.
Princess Reem said that the inspiration behind her only publication `Diwan Al Noor´ is that one of Allah´s manifestations on earth is light and that through light we could get a glimpse of His Glory and Beauty.
The book was designed by Miracle Graphics Co. in Bahrain. The distance Reem Al Faisal has covered is that of an inward continuity…At the heart of an anonymous universe, a well travelled female photographer´s daily milieu. She builds up her rules, her personal guide marks, and her plastic linkages, which fuse worlds, culture, and nature…even the most contradictory.
She belongs everywhere, a witness both to a precious cultural beauty and to a natural simplicity, focusing on a minute detail or scanning a panorama. Her gaze, her expressions are varied, alternating between minimal graphics or hazy poetic images, lyrical or serene.
The eclectic collages reflect delicate emotions. They make us cross freely and quite naturally any geographical, chronological or aesthetic frontiers.
Besides Saudi Arabia, the exhibitions of her photographs have been held in Dubai,
Bahrain, Egypt, Palestine, China, Singapore, Korea, Spain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and the United States.
In the first exhibit ever by a Gulf artist in Palestine in 2002, Princess Reem´s black and white photographs received a lot of attention. The exhibit featured photographs taken in Egypt, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Ireland.
Princess Reem is an outspoken person. She does not mince words. Her thoughts and opinions are as clear and sharp as her photographs and puts before the person what she feels is black and white.
About the U.S. backing for Israel, she said, Americans cannot plead ignorance for their country´s "blind and uncritical support for Israel."
She said that her American friends tell her that the Arabs have failed to get their message across to the American public and that Arabs should try harder.
"I find this very hard to believe," she said, and explained, "America is the strongest nation on earth today. It has been at the forefront of most major developments in science and technology. It is home to great universities and institutes of learning and the American people have easy access to them. Americans now live in the age of information which they themselves were the main creators of. Given all this, if the Americans are incapable of finding out the truth for themselves on any subject, then they are either dumb or criminally negligent."
According to her, there is nothing special about America. "When we begin to view America in the light of reality, then we might begin to avoid the horrors which have been wreaked on humanity by those who think they are above the rest," she said.
As for Iraq, she said the U.S. should leave the country "after apologizing for over a million dead after an unlawful embargo and a colonial war which at best is a farce and at worst a crime…" "Are the Americans willing to admit their mistakes?" she asked, and added, "This is the most important question of the 21st century, since much of the world´s safety depends on it."
