We recently connected with Hamza Brahmi and have shared our conversation below.

Hamza, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I’ve always wanted to express myself in some way. I always had a certain vision in my mind that I wanted to bring out to the world, and I had the desire to contribute to the cultural scene. All my life, I’ve appreciated all art forms and spent my time submerging myself in the artistic world. Coming from Tunisia, where the artistic scene is so raw and young, I really wanted to document what was going on around me.

It all started when my friends gave me their camera to take some pictures, and it came to my mind that photography was the path I wanted to take. After feeling excited and happy about the feedback I got from my friends after they saw the pictures, I decided to start doing photography. I got my first film camera right afterward and started documenting small moments from my life, but that didn’t feel like enough for me.

A few months later, my best friend and mentor, Oussema Zakraoui, decided to give me his digital camera to expand my talents. That’s when I started documenting the youthful rave scene in my country, marking the beginning of my professional career in photography. I felt so happy witnessing this scene emerge from the underground and felt very blessed documenting it. Since then, I took it upon myself to document the underground culture wherever I am.

Since I’m in Madrid right now and have left my home country, I started documenting the underground punk scene in Madrid because I saw the same rawness and youthfulness that I witnessed in the underground rave scene in Tunisia. Then, I started an art collective (Lejos de Aquí) with the help of my two talented friends, Raiyn Fautheree and Alejandro Moran. Since then, we had our first exhibition with all our talented artists, and it was a great success. I’m hoping we continue just as we first set off, and I trust the talents of our artists to bring us further success.

Hamza, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a 21-year-old non-binary Tunisian photographer and artist. I was born and raised in Tunisia but moved to Madrid almost two years ago to pursue better opportunities that my country didn’t offer me. In Madrid, I co-founded an art collective with the help of my two talented friends to express our vision in the art community and integrate there.

I got into photography with the help of my friends who gave me their camera to take some pictures. After receiving their feedback, I decided that this was the best path for me to deliver my artistic vision to the world. I’ve always had a passion for documenting things beautifully and capturing emotions as they flow into our world.

My services to the art world mainly revolve around visual art. I strive to offer my clients a unique vision and provide them with work that is raw and full of emotion. I’m proud of the way I capture things and the way I see them. I’ve always loved transforming emotion into a physical and visual form, where you can see the image and notice the kind of emotion I wanted to convey.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me personally, I think that seeing what you’re able to create as an artist is the most rewarding aspect of being an artist. Being able to translate your vision and creativity into any form possible is incredibly fulfilling. I always think the art that I produce is a part of me, like it’s my own child that I took care of and watched grow and change.

As an artist, you should never have any limits on your creativity or the form in which you want to translate your vision. Seeing my artworks appreciated and receiving feedback is a big motivator for me to keep producing art. However, this can be a big trap because we’ve been programmed to think that you need to constantly produce to be a “productive” artist. This can result in fatigue and eventually stop you from creating more, as you start judging yourself based on your work.

I personally struggled with this for a long time, but I came to learn that as much as your art represents you, you should always give yourself a break and the chance to mess up and not do as well. Most importantly, don’t hold very high expectations of yourself and your art. An artist isn’t always expected to create perfect things. It’s through trial and error and experience that you foster your relationship with art.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think coming from a country that has a lot of restrictions on various art forms made me very resilient. I remember how many times the cops were called because there was a rave somewhere. Additionally, coming from a very homophobic country, I always had to put restrictions on myself regarding how I express myself. As artists from Tunisia, we’ve always had to work very hard to protect ourselves and our vision. This, in fact, taught me many things and allowed me to gain a lot of experience before setting foot in Europe.

Since coming here, it has also been hard. I arrived in a country where I didn’t speak the language, didn’t know anybody, and had to recreate everything from scratch. I encountered many obstacles, including the systemic racism that exists in Europe and the difficulty of integrating without speaking the language and being a person of color from North Africa. So, I took it upon myself to learn the language and try to integrate as much as I could. This made me more resilient and helped me gain a lot of experience.

Since my first day here, I’ve had to overcome many difficulties, and I’ve accomplished so much already in the short time I’ve been here. This makes me very proud of myself and reinforces my trust in my talents.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @bruhmii99
• Other: Art collective instagram: @lejos_de_aqui_lda