Ali Farouk Saloum is an Arab-American artist and photographer based in Detroit, Michigan, whose staged, conceptual portraits blend surrealism with a background in fashion photography.,His work explores grief, family, self-conflict and, in the series Not An Enemy Not A Victim, Arab identity.
Saloum studied pre-law in college before switching to art after taking a history of film class, and he began his career shooting fashion editorials influenced by Richard Avedon.In 2019, after his father died suddenly, he began making personal work as a way of processing grief, starting the series My Little Dark Age, described as a cathartic exploration of loss and feeling lost.,Pieces from his series on Arab identity, tentatively titled Not An Enemy Not A Victim, have entered the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Saloum began releasing work as NFTs in March 2021, after seeing the sale of Beeple's work, and has since collaborated with the abstract artist Crow on a joint piece. In 2024 he released Imposter Syndrome and a companion piece, Last Smoke, as editions through Transient Labs on the Stacks blockchain, staging a self-portrait atop a Detroit parking garage with reference to Salvador Dali, Shoji Ueda and Joe Pease.
