Abbas Holcroft

Abbas Holcroft's relationship with image-making began in his father's darkroom at the age of eleven — the slow emergence of an image under red light, the alchemy of shadow and exposure. Self-taught in camera craft and darkroom technique, he learned by instinct more than instruction.

A gap year in East Africa became his first real test. Arriving in Nairobi with nearly two hundred rolls of film and no certainty beyond curiosity, he began to understand what it meant to witness. Photography revealed its quiet force — a way to enter intimate spaces and reflect deeply personal stories with honesty and care.

After studying Photography, Film and Imaging at Napier University, Abbas embarked on a personal project that took him to Iraq and across the Middle East. He was drawn to cultural narratives and to the resilience found within human struggle. During this period, he came to see light as a tool for change — used with intention, it could illuminate overlooked realities and foster understanding in places shaped by conflict and complexity.

The transition to documentary filmmaking felt natural. Where a single frame captures a moment, film allows time to breathe — it carries rhythm, sound, and unfolding narrative. His documentary work extends a long-standing interest in cultural storytelling and lived experience, offering space for voices to emerge in their own cadence.

In the Shadow of Now began as a question that wouldn't go away: how did we let this happen? The answer requires five parts — because the roots are deep, the present is complex, and the future demands more than despair. This film is independently funded, editorially uncompromised, and driven by a conviction that people are fundamentally good but have been failed by their leaders and governments.