Vida Akbari,photographer in Dubai

I studied at the Art University of Isfahan, in a city built out of tilework, arches and light that changes character every hour of the day. Art school there is not about presets and gear. It is about composition, colour and why an image makes someone stop, taught through drawing and design long before a camera is involved.

That training is still the thing I lean on most. When I frame a fashion editorial or a close-up beauty shot, I am solving the same problem I was given as a student: where does the eye enter the frame, and what holds it there.

Working as a photographer in Dubai means working in a city with an unusual amount of range packed into a small area. Desert light an hour from glass towers, coastline, old textured districts, and a client base that spans fashion labels, skincare brands, aesthetic clinics, hospitality and founders who need to be seen properly.

It also means working fast and to a standard, with international crews and brands that expect campaign-ready files, not raw folders. Over the past years I have shot brand imagery for names including Papa John's, Asus, Blust On and House of Nitka Dubai, alongside editorial, portrait and beauty work across the UAE.

I shoot both stills and video, usually in the same booking, because a campaign that carries one look across a website, a print page and a vertical reel performs better than three separate shoots stitched together.

Alongside the camera I work with generative tools as an AI artist. I use them for concepting, set extension and variations around real photography, never as a replacement for it. A product still has to be photographed to be believed.

I founded Talentap Media to handle the parts of a shoot that clients usually have to source separately: casting, styling, hair and makeup, permits, and then the catalogue and portfolio management that keeps a brand's imagery consistent as products rotate.

It means a brand can book one day and receive a finished set of assets, rather than managing four suppliers and hoping they match.

Everything starts with a written brief: deliverables, references, locations, shot count. Nothing about a shoot day should be a surprise, because surprises cost light, and light is the only thing on a set that cannot be rescheduled.

On set I direct continuously and review with you as we go. In post I grade the whole set together, and I retouch conservatively, especially in beauty, where texture is what makes an image credible.