Karim Skalli- Mimasu

A photographer of observational documentation, Skalli came forward with his series ‘Mimasu’ in his previous submission to Untitled Collective in Feb 2017. We wanted to delve deeper...

“I am a photographer with a preoccupation for observational and documentation photography. I am exploring my own identity through my relationship with spaces, objects and people. I am particularly interested in how we perceive the so-called everyday and by creating ambiguous imagery I can hope to challenge perceptions of the banal and how our lived spaces and places are formative of our identity. ”

Firstly, what does Mimasu stand for; and what does it mean to you?

Mimasu roughly translates from Japanese to ‘Look, watch, see’ and it was all about being aware of my surrounding, noticing the things that we’d usually miss and being observant with the world around me.

How did the series originate; have you always been interested in documenting?

The series originated from my obsession with Rinko Kawauchi and her book ‘Illuminance’ I was blown away at how she made the most everyday scenery seem so ambiguous and otherworldly with these shots that featured incredible natural light and textures. I have always been interested in documenting but never really did anything about it, I’d say Mimasu was the project that made me realise how interested I actually was in documenting my surrounding.

As you have previously mentioned, Mimasu is a visual diary of your observational surroundings - when and where do you decide to take the photographs that make up the series?

The images from the series are just from my everyday life, so wherever I happened to be, I took my camera with me, always being prepared for the moment that could arise. I never really planned to shoot anywhere, a lot of the shots just happened when I was about but that was what the project was about, always being aware and documenting my everyday. The photographs where taken in Norwich, Hull, London, Morocco, Wales and a number of other places I visited between the two years the project was shot.

Do you ever stage your photographs to help tell the narrative?

Not often at all, maybe for the odd portrait I do now but not too often.

Your photobook was a collaboration with Graphic design graduate, Nicholas Packer. How did this collaboration come about? And did you always see Mimasu turning into a book?

Me and Nick had been friends through Uni and had always talked about colloborating by creating a book combining our studies (Photography and publishing). We both had very similar interests photography and publishing wise so it quite a natural progression. It was always the intention, I photographed with a book in mind as thats how I wanted it to be viewed, I had always thought that the images would be stronger together rather than on their own and would give a stronger narrative on the meaning of the project when seen together.

The photographs have a very calm feeling to them, do you think this is a reflection of your personality and daily life?

I think its more a representation of the way I photograph. I prefer not to be rushed in what I do so I guess the image represents the space and time I was in at that moment. It was literally a reflection of my daily life though just seen through a different perspective and lens.