Photo exhibit: Capturing resilience

Day-long event highlights the impact of bigotry and radicalism on society.

ISLAMABAD:

Aspiring photographers across the country depicted bigotry through their eyes, with over 30 photos adorning the gallery walls at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) on the theme “Intolerance”.

The single-day photography exhibition is a collection of selected photographs that were sent in from all over the country by young amateur and professional photographers hoping to make an impact and perhaps carve a niche for themselves.

As morose and harsh the theme may be, some pictures did manage to show a silver lining. In one photo, a young girl smiles bravely in front of a pile of rubble that was once her school. She holds a schoolbook in her hand as she smiles into the camera, regardless of the trauma a broken-down school might have caused. A motorist holds his ears in penance with a cheeky smile as he apologises to the traffic police for breaking the law, or even the young child who peers out of the window of a mud house with a beaming smile.

Of course, while many of us would like to believe that good always comes with the bad, there are also darker images that bring us back to the harsh reality of life.



Explaining a photo of a gun proudly displayed on a wall of a rural home as a sign of power, businessman and amateur photographer Ali Zia said, “this is a common sight in rural Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. Feudal lords display their guns proudly while even the poor keep pistols handy,” said Ali Zia, a businessman by profession but also an avid amateur photographer.

One picture of the stone carvings of Buddha in Julian, Taxila serves as a sad reminder of the national disregard for cultural history. The large stone carvings are missing their heads and are visibly worn out, turning the serene, meditating Buddha into a headless, helpless-looking figure carved in stone.



Of the negatives, name tags and background along with each picture would have been preferable, while the sizes of most of the printed photographs were smaller than what is seen at most photo exhibits. With the largest photos being only 8” by 12”, many viewers had to come stand very close to view each picture to understand the contents, often sans context.

“The photographs should have been larger and mounted on big frames so that the people viewing them, could stand back and appreciate them in a way that the mood and contents of the photo could be absorbed properly,” said Laiba Tirmezi, another visitor who has recently forayed into landscape photography.

Noted artist Jamal Shah was also present at the event.  He lauded the efforts of PNCA for the promotion of art and culture through such events and exhibitions. Cultural harmony formed the centrepiece of its mandate. Shah also underlined the need for such events to counter violence in the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 23^rd, 2013.