Artist, teacher, and mentor, Safeya Binzagr has always cultivated a deep connection to her birthplace of Jeddah, although she moved away from the city as a child, attending school in Egypt and later receiving a degree in drawing and graphic arts from Central Saint Martins in London in the late 1960s. Returning to Saudi Arabia as an adult and witnessing the rapid modernization and urbanization transforming her birthplace, she began compiling and documenting local traditions and customs, capturing in her paintings and drawings aspects of Saudi Arabian culture that were quickly vanishing: tribal dress, marriage ceremonies, and everyday situations. In 1978 Binzagr, a pivotal figure in the emerging Saudi arts scene, was one of the few women to ever hold an art exhibition in the country, at a time when there were no commercial galleries. In 1995 she established Darat Safeya Binzagr, a museum, art school, and gathering place for artists in Jeddah, where she showcases her artworks and rare collection of traditional garments and costume jewelry from around the country. In 2017, she was awarded the First Class Order of King Abdulaziz for her contributions to Saudi culture.

Turathuna (Our Tradition) (1997–99) is a series of detailed photogravure prints capturing the intricacies and richness of traditional dress from various tribes and regions of Saudi Arabia in thirty-nine images. The project was preceded by intensive research into the histories of the different garments as well as the styles, colors, embroidery, and textiles used in various parts of the country. Golden thread and silk adorn ceremonial garments from Hijaz, for example. Here a bride is shown crowned with an embroidered headpiece. In contrast, a woman from Aseer is portrayed in the linens and cotton fabrics typical of everyday attire and complemented by a straw hat as protection from the heat. Produced in a limited edition of thirty prints, such images are significant as detailed and extensive documents of Saudi Arabia’s folkloric heritage. By comparison with the clothing of today, Binzagr’s series inherently conveys the changes to traditional costumes that took place over the course of the twentieth century through the influences of mass production and globalization.