Hi Nasser, thank you so much for speaking to us. A little background: you own, operate and run a popular blog called IMMORTAL ENTERTAINMENT. Could you tell us what the blog’s aim was when you started, and what kind of topics you cover?

We spent 2009 working hard on a variety of projects, so we thought we should make some of the projects public, and that was it really: an online presence to get some exposure. After two weeks online we were contacted by Leica, the finest camera maker in the world, to work with them on their V-lux 20 project, a project where 11 authors captured their personal views using the latest Leica camera.  It did have an effect on how we ran the blog, it not only became a tool to get exposure it became a platform that let us highlight problems, projects and issues relating to the Arab street.

DIA: I see in some of your recent photography there are a lot of pictures to do with the past and even current day conflicts and massacres. Do you feel in a way your photography is helping to make a difference in opening people’s eyes?

KALAJI: Most definitely, I mean from the feedback we get from our friends, fans, family, artists and people in the industry we often hear things like ‘Oh I never knew such a problem existed’, or ‘I’ve heard about this problem before but never actually seen anything about it’. Photography is one of the ways that we use to get Middle East exposure, we are also the eyes of the Arab hip hop movement, and we are film and documentary makers.

DIA: How do you feel it compares to taking pictures of landscapes for example? When you take a picture of a memorial site do you take shots/adjust the way you take a picture than compared to, say, a picture of a pyramid?

KALAJI: I only take pictures that say something about the human condition. I am not one to say, stand in front of the pyramids and just snap a picture. I need that picture to tell me something.

DIA: So more than just a medium, photography to you is also a political, social or emotional illustration?

KALAJI: Definitely. Photographers, or at least street and conflict photographers, are more about intellectual analysis than anything else. I mean when you think of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China what is the first thing you think about? It’s that image of the student being run over by a tank. Photography puts our understanding into a visual medium.

DIA: When you were first contacted by Leica how did you feel? Did you ever expect anything like that to happen when you made your blog?

KALAJI: It still puts a smile on my face. We used to have an inside joke whenever we went on a shoot run, we used to pretend we’d been on the phone to Leica. When it actually happened I texted my brother in London and I was like Leica called and they want to talk. It took me a while to convince him that I wasn’t joking.

I never expected it to happen this soon and when I first took it to the streets I could not help myself but think: ‘damn I am one of only 12 people in the world holding this camera’.

DIA: What kind of pictures are you thinking of going for next? Are there any recent developments or conflicts that you feel you really have to cover soon?

I spent a few days in Egypt earlier this month, I am proud to say it’s my best work to date, expect it to show up on the blog soon. Also we are producing a documentary called ‘Voice of the Valley’, a documentary on conditions in the Jordan valley, a lot of its problems seem to be caused, in part, by Turkey. I’ve also been awarded a full scholarship by the foundry photojournalism workshop, which is made up of the finest photojournalists in the world, the workshop will be held in June of this year in Turkey.

DIA: Isn’t it dangerous? Do you ever feel like you’re risking your own safety for photography sometimes?

Photography, especially in our part of the world, is not risk free, but this is how I deal with it: first I believe in what I’m doing, and I cant tell you how many times I ran into problems last month I was surrounded by 30 angry Egyptian men deep in one the ghettos there and was stopped by the secret police a few days later but I somehow got out of both situations.

You have to believe in what you are doing, in its value and importance to have the mindset to get yourself through such situations.
The second thing is helping to bring about change in the world I live in. I have to be willing to take such risks if I truly want to bring about change; I can’t expect others to do it, and I can’t expect change if I’m not willing to take risks.

Thank you so much for talking to us Nasser. It’s been a real pleasure and we wish you and everyone at IMMORTAL ENTERTAINMENT the best of luck for the future.

Images courtesy of IMMORTAL ENTERTAINMENT and NASSER KALAJI
For more information, check out http://immortalent.wordpress.com/
Written by Jonathon Allford