Waleed Almarhoum, a seasoned Saudi photographer and self-described “novice calligrapher” has taken both messages to heart, and has set out to combine the two mediums in an exhibit titled “Al-Khulasah.”

Opening at Riyadh’s prestigious Naila Art Gallery, “Al-Khulasah” showcases the true power behind the written word accompanied by some of his famed natural landscape photos.

From the golden deserts of the Arabian Peninsula to the thick misty forests of Europe and the lush green jungles of the Philippines, Almarhoum’s photographs capture the light in a special way that mixes and matches lines, to create abstract visions and let the viewer’s imagination run wild, forging new shapes and figures along the way.

 

Almarhoum grew up practicing calligraphy from a young age, later branching out into other mediums, specifically photography, through which he would often focus on light and shadows, and how they coexist harmoniously in nature.

His calligraphy, meanwhile, is simple, but each brush stroke is influenced by the magnificence of the colors, the tones and the softness of the images they adorn.