2013 - The Wild Ones
The Wild Ones marks Bahbah’s shift from music photography to storytelling. In this series, Bahbah explores music and festivals as spaces of euphoria and freedom. By capturing the organic moments of love and rebellion, The Wild Ones focuses on ways of romanticizing life, the impact of music on listeners, and expressions of intuition.
2014 - Sex and Takeout
Sex And Takeout is an ongoing viral series on
the unnecessary and unkind social boundaries and cultural taboos forced upon women’s bodies. By indulging in sex and junk food, Bahbah proposes a celebration of the self. Inspired by her personal battle with disordered eating, Sex And Takeout is a declaration of overcoming guilt and shame. Through this series, Bahbah unpacks expectations of femininity and challenges her own standards of beauty.
2015 - Summer Without A Pool I
Summer Without A Pool I recreates scenes from Bahbah’s youth, capturing the memory of her friendships and the experience of growing up in the suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. In this series, the most prominent features of Bahbah’s style are on full display: intimacy told through narrative photography, bold inner dialogue, and brilliant colors. She utilized online platforms to experiment with new approaches to storytelling, particularly the still nascent format of Instagram, to present this series.
2016 - Summer Without A Pool II
Summer Without A Pool II continues Bahbah’s exploration of storytelling by delving deeper into her personal world. No longer observing others or recollecting memories, this is the first series based on a heartbreak. Battling between the respectability politics of her Arab upbringing and her reactive, rebellious attitude, Summer Without A Pool II considers how Bahbah’s naivety on love and boundaries led her into troubling situations.
2017 - For Arabella
In For Arabella, Bahbah tests the boundaries of photography as a raw and safe space to express her truth. Performed through the escapism of her alter ego, Bahbah admits to her own destructive habits. Through this series, Bahbah comes to recognize how her reckless attitude was masking her own personal grief. In understanding the effects of her behavior, For Arabella functioned as an outlet to face and release her destructive habits.
2017 - This Is Not For You
No longer romanticizing unhealthy dynamics, This Is Not For You I & II is a series on anger and acceptance. Bahbah interrogates the incentives and triggers that enable her destructive behavior, admitting to the violence caused by her lovers and the violence she returned. In This Is Not For You, Bahbah harnesses the rage of heartbreak in an earnest attempt to break the continuous cycle of harm underpinning her daily life.
2017 - I Love You, Me Neither
Working through a broken heart, Bahbah contemplates the toxic push and pull of her romantic relationships and reckons with her own involvement in the cycle of self-destruction. I Love You, Me Neither tells the story of obsession, lust, and neglect. Confronting her self-sabotaging tendencies, Bahbah leans completely into vulnerability to find a sense of control in her chaotic desires, contradictions, and truths.
2018 - I Could Not Protect Her
I Could Not Protect Her stands as Bahbah’s most vulnerable series, where she contends with the traumas linked to her personal experiences of Child Sexual Abuse. This series reflects upon Bahbah’s damaged sense of security, which compromised her ability to easily distinguish between safety and danger. I Could Not Protect Her explores the vulnerability of being on the giving end of a one-sided relationship, and
the dependency created when searching for reciprocity and validation in another person.
2018 - Dear Love
In an effort to create work outside of hurt,
Dear Love is a direct address to the yearning for true love. Having found certainty and feelings of freedom within herself, Bahbah now recognizes her longing for deeper connections and a richer life. No longer overcompensating for a lack of love, this series portrays the internal security that comes with honoring the self. Dear Love is an expression of newly acquired stability, a space for Bahbah to dream, expand, and play.
2020 - Bonjour, Bitch
Bonjour, Bitch grieves the experience of falling for yet another narcissist. Noticing the patterns in her dating life, Bahbah accepts there are deeper traumas contributing to her attachment to these toxic relationships. In exploring the hurt and now embracing her growth, Bahbah romanticizes the pain while resisting the urge to be seduced by it. Bonjour, Bitch leans into a grandiose style that shows the protagonist a testament to Bahbah choosing herself and breaking free from the cycles of toxicity.
2020 - 3eib!
3eib! is the first photography series where Bahbah steps in front of the camera to embody the liberatory values she stands for. Translated as ‘Shame On Me!’ from Arabic, this series explores Bahbah’s relationship with sexuality and her cultural identity. Advocating for emotional transparency and freedom, Bahbah acknowledges having hidden behind the lens in the past. In an effort to maintain authenticity and the virtues of vulnerability, Bahbah boldly exposes herself in this self-portrait series. 3eib! challenges the restrictions of Arab culture and the stigma of the Western gaze. While admitting to her complicated relationship with identity, Bahbah also celebrates the complexities of living between cultures.
2021 - Fool Me Twice
Fool Me Twice is a self-reflective series inspired by Bahbah’s understanding of attachment theory. In this series, we watch an anxious-attached woman fall for an avoidant man who remains emotionally elusive in their relationship. In exploring the dynamics between an anxious partner and an avoidant one, Bahbah renders the pattern of hurt and rejection. Through the series, Bahbah unpacks the themes of her love life and readily admits to the shared responsibility of heartbreak. As the first series where Bahbah prioritizes her non-negotiables over a desire to be loved, Fool Me Twice is a promise to grow.