About

Portrait of Mustafa Saeed in a denim shirt and a patterned cap, against a yellow background

Mustafa Saeed is a Somali multidisciplinary artist based in Hargeisa, Somaliland. Working across photography, graphics and sound, his practice explores the complexities of human existence, shaped by conflict, displacement, identity and the environment. Through carefully constructed imagery, symbolic objects and conceptual narratives, he examines the relationship between personal experience and wider social and political realities.

His work often moves between the familiar and the unsettling, giving visual form to experiences, tensions and questions that are difficult to express in words. Rooted in the realities of the Horn of Africa, his artistic language speaks to broader questions of memory, belonging and the human condition.

Mustafa Saeed’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at Photoville in New York, Africa Foto Fair in Abidjan and PhotoVogue Festival in Milan. His photography has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC and The Guardian. He is also the founder of Fankeenna, an independent, youth-led arts space in Hargeisa. He contributes to Everyday Africa and co-founded Everyday Horn of Africa.

Experience

2020–Founder and managing director, Fankeenna
2020–Creative director, MUUQO
2015–Freelance photographer, graphic designer and media producer
2012–2015Art director and graphic designer, SOMTEL International
2011–2014Event coordinator and graphic designer, Afrikanation Artists Organization
2010–2012Graphic designer, Sagal Advertisement Company, Hargeisa
2009–2010Graphic designer, ASAL Advertising & Printing Center

Awards and fellowships

2025Arab Documentary Photography Program Alumni Fellowship, for Lens Through Legacy
2021Emerging Lens Mentorship Program, grant recipient, ART WORKS Projects
2015Arab Documentary Photography Program, six months of mentorship funded by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, the Magnum Foundation and the Prince Claus Fund

Exhibitions

2024–2025The Anarchist Citizenship: People Made of Stories, Framer Framed, Amsterdam
2024Heavy, Emerging Lens exhibition, Photoville, New York
2024Africa Foto Fair
2023Highlights, Ithra, Dhahran
2022Africa Foto Fair, Abidjan
2022Photo Vogue Festival, Milan
2020AFF Archive, touring exhibition, Sharjah
2019Marai'ina, group exhibition by Ithra, Dhahran
2019Since Yesterday, group exhibition by SOOMAAL Art House, Minneapolis
2019The Anarchist Citizenship, a project initiated by Amal Alhaag and Nadine Stijns, Framer Framed, Amsterdam
2018UNSEEN Photo Fair, Amsterdam, with gallery LhGWR
2017Cornered Energies, Hargeisa
2017UTOCORPIS Les Corps Utopiques, video installation, touring exhibition
2016Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg
2015Lumières d'Afriques, touring exhibition
2015Just Another Photo Festival, Delhi
2014AddisFotoFest, Addis Ababa
2013Pop Up Addis, Addis Ababa
2013Hargeisa in Me, Hargeisa

Editorial clients

 BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian

Languages

 Somali (mother tongue), English (proficient), Arabic (fluent)

Contact

Email[email protected]
Instagram@themustafasaeed