TASNEEM ALSULTAN

Born in the US and raised between the United Kingdom and Saudi where she is currently based, Tasneem Alsultan is an investigative photographer, storyteller, and global traveller. Her work largely focuses on documenting social issues and rights-based topics in Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf region, challenging stereotypical perceptions of the Middle East and portraying a region and people that do not conform to expectations. Working primarily for The New York Times and National Geographic, Alsultan documents ground-breaking developments in Saudi and the surrounding region.

Alsultan was elected a grantee of the Magnum Foundation/ Prince Clause/ AFAC grant in 2015, and began work on her project Saudi Tales of Love. Consecutively in 2016 & 2017 Alsultan was selected by British Journal of Photography , and PDN’s 30  “emerging photographers to watch”. She joined Rawiya, the first all-female photography collective from the Middle East. In 2018 Alsultan became the first Arab female photographer in the Canon Ambassador program, and was a recipient of the  Joop Master Class, part of the World Press Photo, Netherlands. In 2019 she was selected as a recipients of the Catchlight Fellowship  suporting her work on Saudi women. 

Having focused her research on anthropological studies of Saudi women, Tasneem holds a Master of Art in Social Linguistics from Portland State University and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Linguistics from King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi.