In Inherited Presence, light becomes more than illumination; it becomes a force that reveals, conceals, and transforms. Moving between body, landscape, and material, the work explores how light carries memory, presence, and change across different environments.
The images connect past and present through natural light, fabric, water, and movement. In Morocco, light touches the landscape, textiles, and figures as something almost ancestral, carrying traces of culture, ritual, and belonging. It shapes how the body appears, disappears, and re-emerges within the environment.
In the more recent works, light becomes increasingly unstable. Through water and movement, it bends, reflects, and fragments, shifting the image away from representation. Light itself becomes a material element within the work.
This transformation extends into more sculptural forms, where light no longer only reveals the subject, but actively defines shape and surface. Here, the image moves further toward abstraction, allowing light to function as both structure and presence.
For Two Centuries of Light, the series reflects on light as both witness and active force—something that not only illuminates, but continuously reshapes how we see, remember, and transform.
Author biography
Sabrina Charehbili is a Dutch-Moroccan photographer whose work explores the relationship between the human body, landscape, and inherited identity. Moving between figuration and abstraction, her images focus on transformation, presence, and the fluid nature of memory and belonging.
Her practice developed through a personal search for connection to her cultural background, leading her to work within the landscapes of Morocco. Through the use of light, fabric, water, and movement, she creates images that exist between reality and imagination. Figures emerge within open environments where they merge with their surroundings, dissolve into material, or reappear through gesture and form.
Charehbili works intuitively on location, allowing natural forces and material interactions to shape the image. In her recent work, water introduces distortion and fluidity, expanding her visual language beyond direct representation.
Her work was recently presented at the Valencia Photo Festival, where selections from her ongoing project *Inherited Presence* were exhibited alongside a moving image installation. Through her practice, Charehbili creates visual spaces where identity remains shifting, embodied, and continuously evolving.