Dubai-based Portuguese documentary photographer Ana Backhaus remarked during her ‘How Stories Can Save Us: A Journey through Love, Loss, and Legacy’ session at Xposure International Photography Festival 2026, underway in Aljada, Sharjah.

Speaking with renowned photography advocate Frank Meo at the prestigious event, held this year under the theme “A Decade of Visual Storytelling,” Backhaus shared an unfiltered account of how photography has helped her transform grief into a visual language of love and memory.

For Backhaus, the moment of realisation came during the COVID-19 pandemic, which coincided with her mother’s eight-month battle with cancer.

 “When the world shut down I was in Portugal. I went to our countryside house, photographing and documenting moments of my mom and my son together, not knowing how this would work in the years to come. And now this is the only way my son will know her,” Backhaus said, explaining how the journey began when she started using visual art to preserve memories of her mother with her three-year-old son.

“After every treatment she kept grabbing on to hope. And I grabbed hope, and I grabbed my camera. The camera gave me something to do with my helplessness, because I wanted to help her but I didn’t know how,” Backhaus added.

The process of creating photographs of the relationship shared between grandmother and grandson gave Backhaus the creative courage to keep using her lens to use the power of storytelling.

“The camera gave me courage. It became a filter between my mother and me. When she broke down and cried, I was witnessing her pain, I was present, but I could say to myself, ‘I will process this later.’”

Backhaus reflected on how she consciously tried to remain emotionally composed in front of her mother, knowing that any emotional distress would negatively affect her health, describing this restraint as one of the hardest human balances she had to carry.

She also spoke about the role reversal between her parents during her mother’s illness, describing the quiet transformation of her father into a caregiver, and how the silence between them became a form of deep, wordless partnership she sought to capture visually amid the pain.

Among the images she shared were photographs taken during her parents’ 50th wedding anniversary amid the COVID-19 lockdowns, as well as scenes from her childhood bedroom, which she described as a “time capsule” that carried her back to earlier memories of safety and belonging.

After her mother’s passing, Backhaus described the most difficult realisation as becoming “a mother without a mother,” noting that documenting the bond between her own son and his grandmother became a rare source of beauty and hope within grief.

She revealed that she later prepared a carefully curated album for her son to help preserve his connection to his grandmother, especially as the images taken before her illness remain the only way he will know her in full health.

Turning the lens on herself, Backhaus spoke about using self-portraiture as a silent cry of pain, explaining: “With every picture I was saying, I’m not okay but maybe I will be okay.”

Well known for her documentary work exhibited across Europe and the Middle East, Backhaus believes that learning to translate difficult emotions into visual narratives has helped her evolve not only as a photographer, but as a human being.

Organised by the Sharjah Government Media Bureau (SGMB), Xposure 2026 is an immersive celebration of photography, filmmaking and the visual arts, featuring a packed programme of seminars and workshops that offer enthusiasts the opportunity to learn new skills while networking with professional photographers, filmmakers, and visual artists from over 60 countries.