Call & Response: Samer Ghani

(7 min)

Samer Ghani is an artist. An artist with an exceptional eye and a passion for capturing moments. He has built a career combining his camera, curiosity, and community into works that stand out from the noise, that elevate the subject of each shot. The Milwaukee based director, producer, photographer, videographer, and journalist may have honed his skills by documenting live music, but his hard work and eagerness to grow have expanded his versatility and tools, emerging with one of the most distinctive styles we’ve seen. In this feature, Samer gives authentic artistic insight and shares his thoughts on working in Milwaukee, connecting his art to being a Palestinian American, and more. Read on for a most illuminating and thoughtful interview.

Lab Notes (LN): If you had to boil your journey into one sentence, what would it be? (Run-on sentences accepted and encouraged.)

Samer Ghani (SG): First generation Palestinian American documenting life around them to connect the dots where arts and culture not only intersect, but collide.

LN: What was it about capturing the world through photography that separates itself from other art forms for you?

SG: Haha this is funny because when I was young I always wanted to draw and share this abstract view of the world that I saw in my imagination, but I simply never had that gift. I went to photography as the next best thing, to try and literally capture the world around me but still share that abstract perspective. When you slow life down, frame by frame, you get to see everything that is swept away in the momentum of life. Photographs, much like poetry, can connect us to the abstract dance that is life in motion.

LN: In a recent interview you shared that shooting landscapes was a passion and that shooting artists started as a dedication and that those lines eventually merged. Could you talk more about how your style emerged from those and what that process was like?

SG: This is a great question, and I don't often get to elaborate on this subject. I definitely cut my teeth shooting artists endlessly throughout venues big and small in Milwaukee. It started as a way for me to practice, and build a sense of community. I figured, if artists had high quality photos of them preforming, maybe people would start to take them more seriously. In my mind, as the years went on, the stakes grew for everyone, and I wanted the work I was doing for these artists to reflect their growth, venues growth, and the over all community growth. Before I knew it, I wasn't shooting landscape at all and I was two feet into documenting life in the city. I recently came back to it, but the lines became so blurred and it absolutely changed me as an artist, took me out of my comfort zone, which in turn allowed me to fail and learn.

LN: You’ve mentioned wanting quality images for artists, quality images to capture the peaceful protests. Why do you think that matters so much?

SG: As a Palestinian American, I find the documentation of life/journalism so important. Many people wouldn't know what happens in the Middle East, Africa, Central & South America, etc, without documentation. What's happening in my community is connected, in some strange way, to my roots. Documenting artists is a no brainer, but documenting peaceful protests was the first time I was able to rise to the challenge by merging the artist I am, alongside the Palestinian American that I also am. Those images I captured here aren't too different from the ones that I may capture there.

When you slow life down, frame by frame, you get to see everything that is swept away in the momentum of life. Photographs, much like poetry, can connect us to the abstract dance that is life in motion.

LN: The way you showcase the sights and scenes of Milwaukee really captures the heart of the city. Why have you decided to make MKE your home base? Is there something about this place that is exciting for you to explore as a visual artist?

SG: I was born and raised here, I went to Milwaukee Public Schools, I was raised in a single mother home, I experience racism, I experience the good, the bad, and the ugly. But I can also see where this city can go. It's so cliché, because I think almost everyone who has a dream and is from Milwaukee says these things about this place. But this city is a volcano that is ready to burst, and this moment is the breath before the explosion, we all feel that. To explore this landscape as a visual artist, to document the artists, organizations and everything in between is what I owe to this city. From birth, to the start of this career, I think I'd only be able to start something like this IN Milwaukee.

LN: As someone who supports yourself through your art, how do you balance your creative life and passions with the necessities of being self-employed?

SG: This is another great question, and it's absolutely a hardball. The winning recipe is getting the creative passion to line up with the employment, but I can speak on behalf of all artists in every industry when I say that is the dream. I live bits of that dream from time to time, but I realize as I get older, and my needs change towards what fulfillment means, that being self-employed at all was always the original dream. Everything else is icing on the cake. Like any real paying job, you have to do things you aren't exactly excited about, you have to take the L's, and you have to convince yourself that each job that is NOT high paying, or seemingly worthwhile now, has a story attached to it. YOUR story. And the people that hire you, or take a chance on you, if you deliver, will never forget that that opportunity wasn't wasted. Life as a self employed artist is worrying about money, taxes and getting to that next goal. But it comes in time if you take care of the passion, and are honest with yourself the whole way through.

I realize as I get older, and my needs change towards what fulfillment means, that being self-employed at all was always the original dream. Everything else is icing on the cake.

LN: Do you have any projects, images, videos that you’re especially proud of that you can share with us?

SG: I'm particularly proud of this year’s (2021) 414 Day Video. Shot, directed, edited and produced by me, with the help of the Milwaukee Downtown Bid (Gabe) & Imagine MKE (Lindsay/David). But I'm also proud of meeting Tom Delonge, shooting two of his shows in one year, and him making an Instagram post about meeting me. He's easily my all time idol, so making that connection and having photography lead me to that experience is nothing short of a miracle for a small fry like me.

LN: What do you do when you’re not capturing moments on camera?

SG: Definitely video games, I love love love video games. As a 90's kid, it's like absolutely my jam. When I can't sleep I have my dreamcast with Jet Set Radio ready to go~ I also like biking, hiking, traveling, but most of these things directly relate to photography :)

LN: If you were trapped on a desert island, what 5 albums could you not live without?

SG: Oh sheesh.

-We Don't Need To Whisper by Angels & Airwaves

-Transatlanticism by Death Cab for Cutie

-Channel Orange by Frank Ocean

-Flower Boy by Tyler, The Creator

-Mike Krol is Never Dead by Mike Krol

LN: What are three things about you that wouldn’t want left out of your Wikipedia page?

SG:

-Deep interest in sleep study

-does believe in multiverse

-loves aliens/space/timestuff

Learn more about Samer Ghani and see more examples of his work at his website.