RIYADH: Young photographer Redha Al-Hammad is documenting the fading natural springs of Qatif, a landscape shaped by water for thousands of years, before their stories disappear.
His new project, “O Breaker of the Louz,” captures the cultural memory surrounding the springs that once sustained one of the oldest settlements in the Arabian Peninsula.
Alhammad, a 20-year-old visual artist from Qatif and student at the American University of Sharjah, developed the project to preserve his hometown’s identity and share its untold narratives.
Qatif’s springs once fueled its agricultural prosperity, nourished date-palm droves, supported early communities, and served as fathering spaces for trade, social life and storytelling. Today, only one spring — Ayn Al-Labbani — still flows.
With limited written research available, Al-Hammad relied on oral histories from relatives and community elders.
