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Photography by: Said Abusaud
Fashion photographer, creative conceptualist and owner of Afterglow Gallery, Said Abusaud is a Dallas native who, for four years, has captured “candid photos expressed in artful fashion.”
Abusaud started his photography journey by making a stop at Best Buy and purchasing a camera kit. He began with basic photography then started collaborating with Ashlee Gonzales, an Aveda Institute educator, makeup artist and esthetician. She was graduating at the time and discovered Abusaud resulting in them working together ever since their project together. Gonzales happens to be Abusaud’s inspiration for doing photography.
“I had nothing to lose,” Abusaud said. “I knew I had talent, I just didn’t know what direction that talent went. By chance she happened to reach out to me and I accepted it. That’s when I realized this was something I could do. From there it just exploded.”
Not too long after, Abusaud created his Afterglow team consisting of various models, an assistant director, a makeup artist and of course, photographers. Look at the whole Zine (look book) here. When looking for models, Abusaud takes to Instagram to scope out candidates.
“I look at the person in general,” Abusaud said. “There’s two big differences with women or men when it comes to their Instagram. Either one, they’re shooting or posting a picture for the Instagram or there’s that individual that’s doing it for art.”
Abusaud’s pre-fascination with clothing, how it makes people feel and the power it brings was part of the appeal for him to become a fashion photographer.
“The littlest thing you can wear can make you feel good even if you’re having the worst day,” Abusaud said. “It’s how you present yourself to society. It's a big deal to me because I live my life very classy; it’s just how I was raised."
Being in a house with mainly his mother and three younger sisters, Abusaud is “naturally attracted to things he’s not supposed to like by society.”
Aesthetically speaking, Abusaud enjoys subjects that pop in color and are strange.
“I gravitate towards things that are different,” Abusaud said. “I love mixing colors and anything psychedelic.”
Abusaud finds himself influenced by his family, God, friends and celebrities like David Bowie, Lenny Kravitz and Prince.
Besides fashion, Abusaud studies international politics in the Middle East with subjects such as the Syrian War and refugees. One day, Abusaud wants to take his photography skills to that part of the world and show what life is really like outside all of the war Western media shows on the news.
If you are a follower of Abusaud on Instagram, you see the captions are all quotes.
“Every photograph I put, every quote that I put has a hidden meaning, no one has been able to crack that yet,” Abusaud said. “There’s a meaning, there’s a reason why I look for a specific quote. There’s a reason why I post that photo, there’s a reason why I take it at a certain angle; it’s a story and nobody has been able to grasp that yet.”
Abusaud’s dream to take photos in the Middle East is a continuation of the idea. Abusaud’s goals are to help his Afterglow team achieve new heights (like getting new clients to work with), work for magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue.
Website: www.afterglowgallery.com
Instagram: @afterglowgallery