DUBAI: Who doesn’t love a selfie? Saudi Arabia-based Dutch artist Aljohara Jeje is one of 50 creative talents who has their self-portraits featured in an ongoing UK exhibition titled “SELFIES: Women in Photography. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @arabnews.lifestyle Jeje’s entry “Reflection,” which also won the Best International Image at the exhibition, was picked from a wider series she had created on women, called “Performance.” A virtual exhibition running until July 31, “SELFIES” boasts 50 photographs chosen from more than 500 entries submitted by Royal Photography Society members and non-members from countries including Saudi Arabia, Greece, Australia, India, Brazil and Argentina. Having grown up in the north of Europe and then living in countries like China, Italy and Portugal, the artist said she was astonished at how people always talked about the differences between them when she could only see the several commonalities that unite humans beyond borders. But a concept that stuck was also that women everywhere, no matter how educated or progressive, were still expected to “perform” or behave in a certain way. “Growing up in Europe, I was told to, ‘Shut up and be pretty.’ We were taught to be silent, not to speak our minds, to talk when spoken to and to always be appeasing and pleasant,” said Aljohara. “We women are all well-educated and more or less liberated. But still we are falling back to these old patterns. So, I think one of the problems is also that women still do not speak out. In ‘Reflection,’ for example, my eyes are covered and my mouth is closed,” said Aljohara explaining her photo. “What drew me to the exhibition is this duality in women.” Aljohara, who packed up her home in Europe almost five years ago and now calls Jeddah her forever home, hopes women will take the time to visit the virtual exhibition. “These are images where you can reflect on yourself or where you can find yourself. It is really overwhelming how beautiful they are and sometimes you can see the beauty and the struggle of the women and that is, of course, very human as well. Some images are very poetic, others very raw and brutal, but also this is a part of who we are,” said the artist. Jeje hopes that men will also visit the online exhibition because, “I think for them it will be very interesting to see how we (women) look at ourselves.” The panel tasked with curating the exhibition included photographer Amak Mahmoodian; RPS Director of Development Tracy Marshall-Grant; Women in Photography Chair Teri Walker; and Laura Noble, curator and founder of LA Noble Gallery.