Sham Mahaini

Artist Statement

Sham Mahaini's work centers on people and the stories they carry in their hands, faces, and gestures. Her photos for this exhibition focus on the resilience of immigrant parents, the softness of family bonds, and the warmth of ordinary scenes that often go unnoticed. She tends to take pictures of "feel-good" moments to promote happiness in daily life. She wants her photographs to hold emotion, not just what a moment looks like, but what it feels like. Sham's images often focus on the emotional truth of a moment rather than its perfection. Her subjects are not posed symbols—they are real people whose stories deserve to be seen and felt.  

Working primarily with an old DSLR camera, Sham embraces her equipment’s imperfections and limitations. She values the slowness and patience it requires. Editing is a central part of her process, and she gravitates toward warm color grading, creating images that feel familiar, comforting, and emotionally rich. For her, warmth is not just an aesthetic choice; it's a way of honoring the subjects that she photographs. Through editing, she adds depth and softness to each image, shaping the emotional tone without losing the authenticity of the moment.  

At the heart of Sham's practice is a desire to make people feel something real. She wants viewers to step into the moment and sense the emotion she felt behind the camera, to discover the story that lives behind every frame. Her photographs invite viewers to pause, reflect, and recognize the beauty in the people who shape their own lives. The photographs in this exhibition are of the people who helped shape Sham's life: her mother, her father, and her twin sister. Each image holds a different type of emotion, from her mother's strength and creativity to her father's labor of love shown through his hands, and the joy of growing up alongside a twin. Her goal is for viewers to feel present, connected, and held by the same warmth and hard work that live inside her family.

— Sham Mahaini, Engineering and Science University Magnet School ’27 

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