Raja Aderdor

Raja Aderdor is a photographer who was born in Morocco and grew up in Kenya and Niger before moving to Qatar in 2004. She works in documentary photography, using both digital cameras and analogue film. Her pictures record lived surroundings: the signs, notices and small traces of work that give a street its character. Her studies span documentary production, linguistics and women's studies.

Her project Signs: Seen, Yet Unseen, made during the 2025 to 2026 Tasweer Residency, grew from years of photographing signs before she saw them as a body of work. It gathers handwritten notes, religious phrases, taxi stickers, warnings and shop signs in Qatar and Morocco. Examples include a pedestrian crossing figure dressed in a Qatari thobe, illustrated rental notices in Merzouga and hand-painted shop signs in Marrakech. She reads these signs for what they say about faith, humour, authority and belonging.

Aderdor also works in publishing and on social campaigns, and she organises photo walks that bring groups together to look closely at the city. Signs: Seen, Yet Unseen is shown in As the Image Unfolds: The Language of Athar at Bayt Al Wakrah in Al Wakrah, from 26 October to 15 December 2026.