Available sizes:
$200 • Large: 16×11 print, matted to 20×16 2mm Styrene board
$100 • Medium: 8x10 print, matted to 11x14 2mm Styrene board
$55 • Small: 5×7 print, matted to 8×10 3/4" foam board
Production time is 3-4 days.
Printed on Moab Estrada Bright Rag, a 100% cotton, museum-grade archival paper known for its soft texture, depth, and tonal richness.
The 5x7 print matted on 8x10 3/4" foam board is an intimate, shelf-ready piece designed to be propped or leaned. Beautiful on a desk, nightstand, bookshelf or entryway table. Due to its thickness, it does not fit standard frames and is best styled in non traditional frames or displayed unframed.
The medium and large sizes are matted and mounted to 2mm styrene board, perfect for traditional framing.
Quba the First
Medina
This was the first masjid ever built. More sections have been added to it over the centuries. The date palm trees paired with the perfectly blue sky and white minaret felt like paradise.
Knowing that the Prophet established the first mosque here and was walking these very grounds was soul shaking. This is one of the first places where Muslims built community. As I walked the grounds I thought about the saying of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH): "If you do not hear children in the masjid, worry for your future," and reflected on the state of our mosques in America where it's not unusual for women and children to not be welcome. The beautiful part about this is that American communities (see NWMI) are starting to address this.
We all have our spiritual work to do, whether you do it in a Mosque, Church, Temple, home or in the street as you walk through life. So, as beautiful as the structure is, it reminded me that this is just means to connect with God and without doing the work in our soul we’re nothing more than egos with a physical body.
This photo was shot on Kodak Portra 400 on a Canon P and was developed and scanned by Photovision. Aside from cropping adjustments, these photos are completely unedited. In a day when artificial intelligence can make aesthetically perfect images I wanted these images to be exactly as my eye saw them. Real and authentic.
Break the mosques, break the temples, break whatever you want to break, but don't break someone's heart, God lives inside the there.
Bulleh Shah
Akbar Sayed is known for creating photographs that capture not only the image, but the soul of a moment. His path into photography began while in nursing school, where empathy and human connection shaped the way he learned to see.
His photography has been featured in Washingtonian, The New York Times, and numerous other publications, and he is a four-time Washingtonian Weddings Editors’ Choice recipient. He lives in Ellicott City, Maryland with his wife and three children, where love, legacy, and storytelling guide everything he creates.
Revered for his editorial, yet emotive imagery & published countless times.
Meet Akbar Sayed
