They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but local photographer Adel Sartawi’s images clearly speak volumes. GABRIELLA PAYNE took a moment to hear about Mr Sartawi’s artistic journey, his inspirations and how his hobby got him through lockdown.
“I love this area and the community, and there are so many beautiful spots and good locations for photography here too.”
To the untrained eye, the everyday, suburban landscape is a very familiar setting and not usually the source of artistic inspiration.
But for Adel Sartawi, a passionate photographer from Pakenham, there is beauty to be found all throughout Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs, and his photographic work truly captures it.
Using both his hand held camera and a drone, Mr Sartawi goes out regularly exploring his local neighbourhood and capturing stunning images along the way.
His striking photographs have received interest and acclaim from both locals and industry professionals, and Mr Sartawi’s images are helping celebrate the wonders Pakenham has to offer.
“We have a lot of beautiful areas here in Pakenham and a lot of people say ‘go to the ocean’ or ‘go here’ or ‘there’ to take photos – but I thought I’ll just try with what I have and it has been amazing,” Mr Sartawi said.
“I’m a big believer that people can make a photo rather than just take it.
“If you have an eye for it, you can create something truly amazing,” he said.
What started out as a mere interest as a child has blossomed into a true passion project for Mr Sartawi, who has been taking photographs for almost 30 years now and still goes out once every two days or so to shoot with his camera.
Growing up in Jordan, Mr Sartawi first began his love affair with photography at the age of 15, when he picked up his brother’s film camera.
Whilst he was able to take some of his first ever photos and experiment with this camera, being film meant that the photos needed to be developed, which proved to be “very expensive” for Mr Sartawi who was a student at the time.
“I didn’t have much support from my family either,” Mr Sartawi said.
It wasn’t until he began at University in Amman, Jordan that Mr Sartawi was able to join the photography club and explore this medium further.
“I hooked up with some photography buddies at University through the club and we organised a few training courses and had a couple of exhibitions at the Uni,” Mr Sartawi said.
“We even participated in a global photography competition at the time.”
After leaving Jordan and taking photographs around the world on his travels, Mr Sartawi made his way to Australia in 2014, where he settled down in Pakenham straight away.
“When I came over in 2014, I first arrived in Pakenham – and I’ve been here ever since,” he said.
“I love this area and the community, and there are so many beautiful spots and good locations for photography here too.”
Over the last seven years, Mr Sartawi has been helping put Officer, Pakenham and the surrounding area on the map with his stunning images, that show off the beauty of the natural landscape.
Whilst photography was a side project for Mr Sartawi for many years, he suddenly found himself with more time to dedicate to this artform after he sadly lost his job in marketing during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns last year.
“Unfortunately I lost my job back in April due to Covid,” Mr Sartawi said.
“It has been tough on everyone and we’re all trying to survive.”
Mr Sartawi said that despite the difficult year in 2020, there was a small silver lining to losing his job, which was that he could use this time to focus his energy on his passion, photography.
Over the last few months, Mr Sartawi has been sharing his images via community Facebook groups and his own photography page, and has been able to take his photography “to the next level” with the use of his drone.
“When I got my drone a few years ago, I started practicing in the local area, and it really allows you to see things from a different perspective,” Mr Sartawi said.
“It looks amazing from far up, it’s unbelievable.”
Whilst he has less control over the drone’s camera settings than his hand held camera, Mr Sartawi said that it is a lot of fun to experiment with shots from a birds eye view.
“The drone is quite easy to work with to be honest – my only challenge with it is that I can’t control the settings, whereas with the camera it’s manual,” he said.
“You can only control the shutter speed with the drone, not the aperture and those kinds of things, so my actual camera gives me much more flexibility.”
His drone image which looks out at the setting sun over the Pakenham Lakeside area received widespread appraise from community members online, and Mr Sartawi said he was thankful for everyone who had supported him and his photography.
“I’m really grateful and thankful for the support from the community that I’ve received,” Mr Sartawi said.
“It’s what matters the most to me.”
After hearing a lot of positive feedback for his work, Mr Sartawi was inspired to create not one, but two different calendars of his images, one focusing on shots of Pakenham and the other more broadly of Melbourne.
His shot of Flinders Street station at night was even used by Melbourne Airport as an image to advertise this vibrant city, an achievement Mr Sartawi said that he is very proud of.
As restrictions continue to ease, Mr Sartawi said that he is excited to get out and take photos of some new places, but he will continue to keep capturing the beauty of his local area and encouraged everyone to give photography a try.
To see more of Adel Sartawi’s work, visit his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/adelsartawiphotography/
