From Friends To Followers
Soraya Azbiri
Antwerp
About
Soraya Azbiri (CMXII) is a Moroccan-Peruvian photographer whose work explores connection, identity, and the spaces where people come together.
She draws inspiration from internet culture and everyday human interactions. Working across event photography, portraiture, and conceptual projects, Soraya is interested in the ways people build communities and express themselves, both online and offline.
Her visual language combines elements of nostalgia, humor, and surrealism, often blending reality with fantasy to create images that feel familiar yet slightly uncanny.
Project
From Friends to Followers: A conceptual work about the loss of the human internet.
On the web, we all sat in a field in a circle. Nowadays, it feels like we are being looked at on a stage, needing to perform and conform while we constantly feel eyes on us, judging. Everything moves quickly, and the pressure to present a perfect image of ourselves is greater than ever. Under that pressure, your authentic self can get lost.
I miss the times when nobody really knew where I was on the internet. Lost on random pages with no algorithm or AI slop, and without ads being force-fed to me every five seconds.
The internet used to live in a room we could revisit anytime we wanted. Now we can't escape it.
