The Image-Makers’ Suhoor is an evening designed for image-makers, artists, and anyone curious about creative processes. The night begins with artist talks, where the invited artists will present works in progress and showcase their image-making practices across analog, film-making, and stop-motion, followed by a Q&A.
Following the talks, participants will engage in hands-on sessions guided by each artist:
Boubaker Boukhari will lead a foraging walk for flowers and branches, which will later be used to build stop-motion stills back at 421.
Hala Al Abora will guide participants through a Chemigram Lab. In this studio session, participants will create chemigrams using resist materials including oil, honey, wax, and soap, combined with photographic developer and fixer in full light.
By controlling chemical access to the paper, the image forms through layered reactions, erosion, and timed intervention, encouraging a deeper understanding of material processes and image instability.
Arnold Barretto will lead a Polaroid lifting exercise where participants will be able to create their own analog marks using this fragile lifting technique.
Participants are encouraged to explore all three sessions, but spaces are limited and RSVP to the event is required to secure your spot.
The evening concludes with a light Suhoor, providing time to reflect, share, and connect over creative practice.
No prior experience is required. Open to all skill levels, ages 18 and above. A light suhoor will be provided.
Language: English
Sign up for the Studio Sessions here.
Artist Bios
Boubaker Boukhari is an Algerian born multidisciplinary artist, director, and animator currently based in Abu Dhabi. With a foundational education in fine arts from Algeria, he further honed his skills in cinema animation through a collaborative initiative between the European Union and the Maghreb region. This experience laid the groundwork for his diverse career, which spans animation, jewelry design, and storytelling. Boukhari's artistic practice is characterized by a fusion of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary media. His recent project, "Ghariba & Ajeeb," exemplifies his interdisciplinary approach, combining shadow sculpture, immersive film, handcrafted jewelry, and live storytelling to create a multifaceted narrative experience. Boukhari has contributed to the arts community as an educator, conducting workshops in cartoon animation and visual effects. His commitment to storytelling and cultural expression continues to inspire audiences and emerging artists alike.
Arnold Barretto (born 1996, India) is an analog photographer, designer, printmaker, and book artist. He received his BFA in Studio Arts from SUNY Plattsburgh, NY, USA in 2019 with an emphasis on Photography and Graphic Design. Following that he moved to NYC where he spent a few months in the Aperture Foundation’s Work Scholar Program working in the Production Department that helps realize the company's Photobooks and Annual Photo Magazines. He then moved back to the UAE (where he spent most of his early life) and now works and teaches for Gulf Photo Plus.
Working primarily with analog processes, Barretto emphasizes the tactile nature of image-making and the quiet intimacy of printed matter. His work explores themes of identity, space, desire, with an emphasis on that which is personal especially when existing in a space that does not allow for this exploration. wHis approach is also rooted in the physicality of materials, inviting slower, more contemplative engagement.
He has participated in group exhibitions across the United States and the UAE. In 2023, he was selected as a fellow of the Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship (SEAF), a prestigious 10-month program for emerging UAE-based artists, conducted in partnership with the Rhode Island School of Design and is currently in cohort 5 of the Teaching Artist Fellowship at Manarat Al Sadiyat in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
He has self-published two artist books. Glimpses (2024) is a limited edition of 75 hand-bound, riso-printed zines featuring original cyanotype portraits of men. Jesus Will Save You (2025) is a personal and palpable exploration of the self in relation to home, religion, and family. Housed in a cassette holder, this accordion book unfolds two parallel narratives running on opposite sides, each with its own distinct interplay of photography and poetic text.
Hala El Abora (b. Amman, 1999) is a Palestinian Jordanian artist based in the UAE whose work explores the shifting nature of archives, evidence, and time. Through printmaking, photography, sculpture, and digital technologies, she examines how histories are embedded in landscapes and materials, engaging with archaeology and geology as methods of excavation—both literal and conceptual. Her practice resists static interpretations of place and history, proposing that landscapes and archives are not passive containers of information but active sites of negotiation, power, and imagination. By working with materials and images in states of transformation—fractured, eroded, or on the verge of disappearance—she interrogates the instability of documentation and the fragile relationship between truth and the archive in an era of post-truth narratives.
Hala’s work was showcased at several exhibitions, including Bygones, NYUAD Arts Center, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2025); Pressure Points, NYUAD Arts Center, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2024); Elemental Relations, Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy (2024) ; Press Print!, Aisha Al Abbar Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2023); Nostalgia, Ayyam Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2023) Getting Over the Color Green, Engage101, Dubai, UAE (2023); Xposure International Photography Festival, Sharjah, UAE (2023); While The Coffee Grounds Settle, Gotham Gallery, Washington, DC, USA (2022); Calculating Chaos, Rewaq Gallery, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE (2022); SGC International Conference, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA (2022); Confluence II, Universiti Sains Malaysia, IE Art Projects, Malaysia (2022); Exit 16, The Studio Gallery, Sharjah, UAE (2021), among others.
Hala was awarded the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Award (2023) alongside her team, and was a member of the Jameel Arts Youth Assembly (2022-2023) and is currently in the Dubai Public Art 2025 Education Programme. Hala holds a BFA from the University of Sharjah (2021) and has an MFA in Art and Media from NYU Abu Dhabi(2025).