In the early 2000s, Dubai's contemporary art scene was not a given. It was a possibility waiting for a catalyst. Sunny Rahbar became that catalyst. She built audience before she built sales. She hosted film screenings and talks and club nights before she went to Frieze. She defended artists who had no gallery representation and watched them grow into artists shown in every significant Western institution. An Arabic name on a Western gallery's roster is no longer unusual. She is one of the reasons why.

She picked up a friend's camera in her late teens and never put it down. A conversation with Marie Bärsch — editorial photographer for Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar — on location as muse, the perfect shot, and why her dream project involves elephants.

I met Stella Scott in Cambodia — on location, in action, completely in her element. Central Saint Martins. BBC Film. The Spice World Tour. She centres emotional realism in everything she makes, drawing out performances that feel discovered rather than directed. This is her story.