Doha Fashion Fridays is an ongoing collaborative project that uses fashion as a lens to explore migration, identity and visibility in contemporary Qatar. Initiated in 2017 by artist Khalid Albaih, I joined the project to document migrant workers on their day off — Friday — through street-style portraiture and personal interviews shared on Instagram. In a society where migrant labour forms the backbone of the economy yet remains socially and politically marginalised, our aim was to foreground the individuality and agency of those often left out of the national narrative.

Drawing on the visual language of classic street-style photography — full-length portraits paired with close-up details — we document how fashion becomes a form of self-expression and resistance. We resist reductionist portrayals of migrant workers by creating a participatory, dignified space in which they are seen on their own terms. 

The archive that emerged is not just a celebration of style, but a powerful document of transnational lives shaped by aspiration, labour and resilience. It invites viewers to engage with the politics of presence and to reconsider who gets to be visible — and how — in the public imagination of the Gulf.