Practice & Process

At the heart of her creative journey, Esther’s self-portrait practice explores identity, transformation, and the unseen stories held within the body. Guided by intuition, movement, and ritual, her work dissolves the boundaries between observer and observed, light and body, camera and sensation. Each image emerges from a dialogue between body and lens, translating gesture, stillness, and breath into visual form.

Esther often uses props and a sculptural approach to invite transformation. Colours and materials reflect mythology, personal experience, and a visual language that evolves from both conscious and ancestral memory, acting as ritual tools to explore inner and inherited narratives. Her cultural hybridity informs her ongoing inquiry into identity as an Iranian-British woman, while bodily performance becomes a form of activism and reclamation.

The Ritual Project has been captured across landscapes including Iran, Egypt, Turkey, and Mauritius, creating imagery that speaks to the soul and our shared human experience.

“The camera is a witness.
The camera listens without judgment.
The power of photography is to make visible.”
— Jo Spence