Selected photography

Saud Rifat’s path began with a Polaroid at five years old. That early spark became a lifelong study of light, rhythm and story. In 2002 he launched his first audiovisual production company and learned the craft from the ground up. In 2007 he focused on fashion photography, a move that led to the national LUX Silver Award for Fashion and Beauty in 2011.

He founded Silver Snow Studios in Marbella, Spain, in 2013. Today he leads international photo and film productions across Europe and the Middle East with a calm, precise style and a producer’s discipline.

His photography has appeared in Vogue Italia and Harper’s Bazaar Turkey. Brand work includes campaigns for GHD International and Pfizer. On the production side he has overseen shoots for O2 Slovakia, AsiaCell Iraq, Yves Saint Laurent UK, Herbalife UK, FIFA Esports, and an international campaign featuring Novak Djokovic.

A background behind the lens gives Saud a practical edge as a producer. He speaks the language of directors, cinematographers, stylists and lighting crews, anticipates needs, and keeps sets running smooth and respectful of the craft.

Alongside his creative career, Saud is advancing original theory in cognitive science. His current focus is Cognitive Singularity Theory and a recast of Lewin’s Field equation, frameworks that quantify autonomy and higher order thought in both human and machine minds.

Recasting Lewin’s Field Theory (manuscript under peer review)

This paper updates Kurt Lewin’s classic equation, B = f(P, E), into a time-indexed form: Bₜ = f(Pₜ, Eₜ). Behavior is treated as a dynamic field, constantly updating with new inputs and priors.

The framework quantifies surprise using KL divergence and updates beliefs through Bayes rule. Salient signals are broadcast through a goal-weighted global workspace and filtered by a higher order thought gate that determines whether information becomes part of conscious processing.

For decision behavior, predictions are mapped onto drift diffusion parameters, providing a way to test and falsify claims against empirical data. The goal is to carry forward Lewin’s original vision into a form that works for modern cognitive science and machine systems alike.

This manuscript has been submitted and is currently under peer review. The preprint is available on Zenodo here.

Cognitive Singularity Theory (work in progress)

CST asks when an artificial system moves from tool behavior to genuine autonomy. It makes that threshold explicit by defining measurable signals and a clear onset rule so the claim can be tested, not assumed.

The framework tracks four signals in combination, combined into the Cognitive Autonomy Index. The signals are self model revision, goal independence, policy novelty, and access to higher order thought. Beliefs update with Bayes rule and surprise is measured with KL divergence, but the emphasis is on practical, observable shifts in behavior.

For onset, autonomy is declared only when the index stays above a data dependent threshold for several evaluation windows under decreasing assistance and stable or improving reward. The rule separates genuine autonomy from drift and keeps the test falsifiable across systems.

This is ongoing work. A short technical brief is available on Zenodo.

Contact

For inquiries, collaborations, or representation:

info@saudrifat.com