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Documentary Practice — Ghassen Oueslati
Ghassen Oueslati
Documentary Practice

Stories told with patience, intimacy and consent.

Twelve years of documentary photography and videography across the Arab region, Europe and Asia — migration, identity, labour, and the quiet life of communities most often photographed in haste.

Teaser · Selected documentary work Reel / Tunisia · Qatar · Jordan · Indonesia
A Note on the Work

I am a Tunisian documentary photographer and videographer, based between Doha and Tunis. My work lives inside communities — Amazigh grandmothers in Djerba, mothers in the Tozeur oases, sub-Saharan migrants in Sfax and Tunis, young men returning to the boats of Zarzis, Balinese families in their courtyards.

The Arab region, and the wider South, is not one face. It is many — and I photograph it with the patience and intimacy I believe it deserves. Every frame begins with consent.

01A Project
Documentary Reporting · With Bel Trew (The Times / The Independent)

The Southern Edge

Ben Guerdane · Zarzis · Southern Tunisia

A documentary collaboration with award-winning international correspondent Bel Trew covering migration on Tunisia's southeastern border. The work followed people, boats and first responders along the country's edge — portraits, interviews and the unrecorded daily labour of a coastline that has become a route.

The images draw on a long acquaintance with the south rather than parachute reporting; subjects were photographed at eye level, with informed consent, and only after time was given.

Confidential — Not for redistribution
Documentary photograph, Ben Guerdane / Zarzis — Bel Trew collaboration.
Documentary photograph, southern Tunisia migration project.
Documentary photograph, Zarzis migration coverage.
Documentary photograph, southern Tunisia.
02A Project
Commissioned by · Embassy of Indonesia in Tunisia

Bali — a document

Ubud · Denpasar · Bali, Indonesia

Commissioned by the Embassy of Indonesia in Tunisia, this body of work documented Bali across its families, market streets, working hands and students walking home from school. A document of one place, made by someone arriving from another — and looking long enough to see beyond postcard.

Bali documentary photograph.
Bali documentary photograph.
Bali documentary photograph.
Bali documentary photograph.
Bali documentary photograph.
Bali documentary photograph.
03A Project

Decent Work, up close

Tunisia · Multiple governorates

A series of short films produced for the International Labour Organization documenting decent-work programmes, vocational training and youth-employment initiatives across Tunisia. Each piece was made to UN visual standards, with informed consent and safeguarding protocols applied to every subject.

Below: nine films from the series. Click any to watch on YouTube.

04A Project
Editorial Series · Studio & Location

Light, style, identity

Tunis · Editorial commissions · Selected work

A selection of editorial and portrait commissions. Where the documentary work asks for the camera to disappear, this work asks it to look — at posture, fabric, light, gesture. The same eye, addressed to a different question.

Featured internationally in Vogue Italia, Elements Magazine, En Deux Magazine, Moevir Paris and GMARO UK.

Editorial portrait.
Editorial portrait.
Editorial portrait.
05A Project
An Ongoing Series · Independent

The South — heritage and migration

Djerba · Tozeur · Sfax · Southern Tunisia

An ongoing personal document of southern Tunisia — Amazigh women whose tattooed hands carry an unbroken visual language; mothers raising daughters in the oases at the Sahara's edge; sub-Saharan migrants whose labour and presence have become inseparable from the country's south.

The series refuses the single story. It is about who is here, side by side, and how the south of Tunisia has always been a place of arrivals and stays.

Amazigh portrait, Djerba.
Mother and daughter, Tozeur.
Sub-Saharan migrant worker in central Tunisia.
Sub-Saharan migrant labour, Tunisia.
06An Index

Selected Assignments

A working index of humanitarian, NGO, broadcast and editorial commissions across the Arab region, Europe and Asia. The featured projects above are drawn from this longer body of work.

Humanitarian, NGO & Community
Feb 2026
Project Photographer & Director of Photography
Sanad Al Bayt — Sharjah Social Empowerment Foundation (SSEF)
Sharjah, UAE · Programme supporting fatherless children — portraits, workshops and educational sessions for 850+ beneficiaries
Nov 2025
Head Photographer & Video Reporter
Second World Summit for Social Development
Doha, Qatar · Global summit on inequality, poverty and social protection — delegate portraits, session coverage, edited highlights
Aug 2025
Photographer & Director of Photography
Stories from Jordan Platform — Ministry of Culture
Amman, Jordan · Documenting Jordanian memory, social identity and cultural heritage workshops
Feb 2025
Photographer & Videographer
Islamic Relief Jordan, with GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit)
Amman, Mafraq & Zarqa · Orphan welfare programmes, psychosocial support and food-security distributions for vulnerable families
2024
Director of Photography & Photographer
Qatar Airways — "Educate A Child" & "Save the Dream" CSR Partnerships
Doha, Qatar · Bringing education to out-of-school children and empowering underprivileged children through sport
2021
Head Photographer
Ministry of Social Development and Family (MSDF), Qatar
Doha & Yemen · Programmes empowering productive families, with documentary fieldwork in Yemen and coverage of Darb Al Saai
2020
Photographer & Videographer
Qatar Foundation — Shafallah Center for Persons with Disabilities
Doha, Qatar · Documenting programmes and lived experiences with strict attention to dignity and informed consent
2017 – 2018
Visual Content Producer
International Labour Organization (ILO)
Tunisia · Decent-work, vocational-training and youth-employment programmes, delivered to UN visual standards
2016
Photographer & Videographer
MEPI — Middle East Partnership Initiative (U.S. State Department)
Tunisia · Community-led civic and youth-empowerment initiatives across multiple governorates
Ongoing
Visual Storyteller
DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service)
Tunisia · Portraits and short documentary content profiling scholarship recipients and exchange programmes
2014
Documentary Photographer & Videographer · Field reporting
Assignment with Bel Trew (The Times / The Independent)
Ben Guerdane & Zarzis, Tunisia · Anti-migration policies across Libya, Tunisia and Niger — portraits, interviews and B-roll under strict ethical protocols
Editorial, Broadcast & Event
Oct 2022
Official Photographer & Director of Photography
FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 — Lusail (with Alkass Sports Channel)
Lusail, Qatar · Tournament coverage in the Lusail area and DOP for Alkass broadcast productions during the World Cup
2022
Director of Photography
Al Araby TV Channel
Doha, Qatar · DOP for broadcast programming, documentary segments and on-location production
Dec 2020
Photographer & Video Reporter
Al Jazeera Media Network
Doha, Qatar · Photography and video reporting for editorial and documentary assignments
2017
Photographer · Editorial / Diplomatic
Embassy of Indonesia in Tunisia
Bali, Indonesia · Commissioned photo report — cultural, community and travel narratives
Editorial & Cultural Documentation
2015 – 2019
Official Photographer
Miss Tunisia — four consecutive editions
Tunis, Tunisia
2017
Official Photographer
Miss International Japan
Japan
2016 – 2017
Official Photographer
Fashion Week Tunisia
Tunis, Tunisia
Awards & Recognition
Nov 2015
Best Photojournalist
Stowarzyszenie Gazet Lokalnych — Polish Association of Local Newspapers
For documentary work on migration in Tunisia
2015
Best Photojournalism Project
Tunisian Association of Alternative Media, with the Polish Association of Local Newspapers
Tunisia
Editorial features
International Editorial
Vogue Italia · Elements Magazine · En Deux Magazine · Moevir Paris · GMARO UK
Selected portrait and editorial features