Alienation series

2009 - 2011

Have you ever found yourself incapable of accomplishing even the simplest things? Or felt like a stranger in your own homeland—disconnected not only from familiar places but even from people you have known your entire life? There are moments when the city where we were born and raised suddenly feels foreign, when its streets—once walked thousands of times—become unrecognizable. Moments when our own sense of self becomes blurred, and everything we thought was stable shifts beneath us.

These sensations of disorientation, estrangement, and quiet fear sparked the creation of this photographic series. It began in 2009, during a period when I was consumed with trying to understand recurring feelings of helplessness and alienation. My search led me through social theories of alienation, Melvin Seeman’s studies, and psychological frameworks that explore how contemporary life—its pressures, complexities, and the overwhelming “data tsunami” of the modern world—can fracture one’s sense of belonging.

When I completed the series in 2011, the questions that inspired it were still unresolved:
Is alienation a state, a trait, or a self-regulating process?
Is it singular or multi-dimensional?
Where do its boundaries begin, and where do they dissolve?

Between 2011 and 2018, these questions deepened as my own life transformed: relocating to Dubai by the beginning of the Syrian uprising, the robbery of my family home in Damascus twice, my family’s displacement to Yerevan, the sudden passing of my father, and the responsibility of supporting my loved ones amid relentless waves of devastating news. Each experience intensified the very emotions that gave birth to this work.

Throughout those years, I found myself returning to this series—not only as an artistic project, but as a mirror. It became a space where I could confront, unravel, and better understand my shifting identity and the invisible distances growing between myself, my memories, and the world around me.

This body of work stands as an exploration of alienation in its many forms—personal, psychological, social, and existential. It is a visual attempt to navigate the inner landscapes of estrangement and fragmentation, and a testament to the enduring human desire to locate oneself within a changing world.