Who am I?

My name is Ali. I was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. In late 2013, my life’s trajectory shifted dramatically when I moved to the U.S. and lived there for 6 years to pursue higher education. The U.S. was where I first learned and practiced photography. To be frank, I don’t think I would’ve fallen in love with street photography if it wasn’t for the streets of Chicago. 

My passion for photography started from a young age though. It began when I became the “cameraman” on our first family trip to Turkey. I was 7 at the time but I was dedicated to the mission and I enjoyed it thoroughly:). My passion grew when I owned my first iPhone, iPhone 4, and grew even more with every subsequent iPhone since then. 

Shooting with iPhone can be fun. In fact, some of my favorite photos were shot on an iPhone, but I decided to buy a “real” camera when it became increasingly frustrating to get the shots I envisioned. So I bought a Fujifilm X-T3 in mid 2019. Since then, I have been trying to be a better photographer by drawing inspiration from places and other photographers in the community.

- I go by  “Nocturne” because Nocturne by Wild Nothing is one of my favorite albums and it was coincidentally on when I was on a quest for a cool name.