Brigitte Lacombe and Marian Lacombe: Hey’Ya Arab Women in Sport at Sotheby’s Gallery, London

This wonderful series from photographer Brigitte Lacombe Hey’Ya: Arab Women in Sport is currently on show at Sotheby’s London until the 11th August. Photographer Brigitte and her filmmaker sister Marian have spent months meeting more than 50 athletes from 20 different Arab countries, participants in everything from handball and cycling to shooting and weightlifting. The resulting pictures and videos aim to portray personal stories played out against a backdrop of different cultural codes and they are superbly powerful – simple but steeped in narrative, or narratives, as the show cautions us against making generalisations when it comes to this complex, nuanced issue.

Brigitte Lacombe and Marian Lacombe: Hey’Ya Arab Women in Sport, Presented by Qatar Museums Authority, 25 July – 11 August 2012, Sotheby’s Gallery, St George Street, Mayfair, London W1S 2FB. www.sothebys.com