Feminism through the lens of photographers

Curator says exhibition is an effort to bring photographers at par with artists

LAHORE: In a first and unique collaboration of its kind, five acclaimed photographers in the country have come up with a series of fine art photography, highlighting their relationship with the women and women model they work with.

The show titled Eve and Eye is underway at the O Art Space Gallery, showcasing as many as 10 pieces. The exhibition will continue till May 25.

According to the curator of the exhibition, R.M Naeem , who works as an assistant professor at the National College of Arts, the concept behind this show was to highlight and discuss the role and relationship of a photographer in the life of a model and vice versa.

“We assigned photographers to come up with a tribute, depicting women’s contribution to the fashion industry, because the way we look at it, we see that both have a role to play in making each other’s name and place in the industry,” he explained.



“Galleries rarely display photography as an art form, since most of it is not being practised purely for the sake of art. Therefore, this exhibition was an effort to bring photographers in parallel with the artists, allowing them to display their work and thought processes as artists”, he said.

Acclaimed photographer Rizwan Baig said that through the series of photographs, he is trying to depict the essence of feminism through his lens.

“My photographs depict the original feminine beauty without the use of Photoshop or editing,” Rizwan said. He added that in an attempt to break away from the norms of fashion photography, he had tried to capture the real personas of these ladies since he wanted to show everyone that even without the modern-day tools, beauty could be captured.

Ashna Khan, another photographer, said photography for him is a way to tell a story and evoke a feeling. “I utilise my camera as a tool to create imagery that is both real and surreal, laced in fantasy as I almost photograph everything, which interest my aesthetics”, Khan said.



Ashna said that the stories depicted in his work come from human emotions, collective unconscious, dreams and distinct memories. “My photography is a stylistic celebration of mood, time, space and accent of the theme in which the intent is to narrate a story within a frame,” he added.



According to famous fashion photographers Guddu and Shani, their work is an effort to realise the phenomena of being lost and start of a struggle to make whites win over the blacks.

Photographer Alee’ Hassan said his work called ‘Mystery of life’ is based on Lucana (a missing manuscript), representing moments and times in our lives from which are identified as empty parts. Muhammad Hussain Mehmood’s two photographs titled as Discourse 1 and 2, in medium archival ink on paper are also on display.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2017.