Naima El Kadi (b. 1980, Morocco) is a photographer based in Antwerp, Belgium. She studied Photography Fine Arts in 2019 in Temse, completed a Masterclass Cours in 2016–2017 in Breda, followed a masterclass with Laura El Tantawy in 2018 in Ghent, and has been studying Audiovisual Arts – Photography at LUCA School of Arts in Vorst from 2022 to 2025.
Her work focuses on former landfill sites and the pollution that remains there. Even though this is a global issue, she focuses on specific locations in Flanders, Belgium. She produces polaroids and analogue photographs that she developed using polluted water collected from these sites. Chemical residues in the water react directly with the photographic emulsion. They damage the surface and leave visible marks on the images. In this way, the pollution becomes part of the image-making process — not as an illustration, but as a physical presence.
“I am drawn to places where nature and pollution exist side by side. These landscapes show not only environmental damage, but also a hidden and often silenced history.”
Through analogue experiments and field research, Naima develops a visual language where time, material and memory come together. The images do not describe a place in a literal way. Instead, they suggest what lies beneath the surface. Her work invites the viewer to look slowly and carefully, and to reflect on the silent stories that remain in a landscape, even when they are not immediately visible.
