Qarim Zam — How the photographer captures the heart of his home, Zanzibar

 

Stone Town is the old port of Zanzibar City, Tanzania, and it’s teeming with history and heritage that brings in visitors from around the world. 

So, who better to introduce you to its narrow alleys and turquoise waters than someone born and raised there? 

Stone Town local and photographer Qarim Zam tells writer Alix-Rose Cowie how he goes about capturing its everyday magic.

For many documentary photographers, it’s the thrill of visiting somewhere new or far-flung that gets their shutter clicking; bringing home stories from different time zones, and meeting people who broaden their perspectives and portfolios. But it’s a gift to be able to look at a place you’ve known your whole life, seeing people who could be family, on streets so familiar you could walk them blindfolded, and thinking, “there’s something valuable here worth sharing.” Though, it probably helps when your home is a beautiful island off the coast of east Africa. Mukrim Qarim Zam is an aspiring documentary photographer—he calls it a hobby for now—who lives in Stone Town, a historic district of Zanzibar, and lives by the motto: Show your world, to the world.

Wherever he shares his photography, Zam drops his first name and goes by Qarim, the name of his father who he lost five years ago when he was just 20 years old; it was around the same time that he started taking photos. He doesn’t own a camera so all of his gorgeous slices of life on the island are captured using his iPhone, the tool that’s most accessible to him. When it comes to the act of taking a picture—assessing the light, angling the shot and framing the subject—Zam is self-taught. It’s something that comes to him intuitively. Editing was the area he sought instruction; he learned from established Tanzanian photographer and Lightroom ambassador Sam Vox when he’d visit Zanzibar for his own projects, and utilized his open-source presets to brighten or warm his pictures.