Nature captured from a hiker’s lens

Shahid Durrani’s work displayed at Nomad Art Gallery.

ISLAMABAD:

Shahid Durrani’s relationship with photography is no ordinary one. Since picking up the camera in his teens, the hiking enthusiast who is also an engineer by profession has explored nature with his lens.

For more than a decade, Durrani has had an “off and on relationship” with his camera, during which he taught himself the basics but lacked the passion to drive his passion.

“When hiking and I rekindled our flame, I realised that both my hobbies fuelled enough passion to turn them into an art form,” he said at his exhibition in Nomad Art Gallery.

Durrani has an eye that sees beyond the external reality. Through the tapestry of flowing rivers and blooming flowers, the photographer captures moments rather than scenery. For instance, the moment the water touches the bed of the river is something that inspires Durrani.

He perceives nature at its best and captures the essence of nature that moves him the most. For an artist to produce something worthwhile, it is pertinent for him to feel and to experience the surrounding and translate it into his work.

Dr White from the American Embassy said, “These photographs depict my hometown and yet I feel strangely disconnected. It seems as if I have never seen it before.”

The landscape of Seattle and the neighbouring Alpine region, from tulip fields to a single pearl nestled in the heart of an oyster, is captured beautifully; the artist has his own angle for each shot.

“For me, photography is a vehicle to portray the wonder in nature,” Durrani said. “Uncluttered, simple statements are what I strive for, since I believe that nature never needs dressing up. I want to show off the character and beauty of its inherent nature.”

The pictures at the exhibition are priced between Rs3,000 and Rs6,000 and will continue till September 18.



Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2011.