Capturing all the shades of nature

Photographer Asif Raza takes a leap of faith when he decides to work with natural landscapes.

KARACHI: Photographer Asif Raza took a leap of faith when he decided to work with natural landscapes in his series of works, titled “To grasp the scheme of things entire”.

His subject has been explored all too often by artists and photographers and at first glance, Raza’s work leaves the viewer unconvinced that this show could be any different from others.

Yet, with his play of colour, contrast and focus, Raza had managed to push the subject towards a henceforth unexplored territory with his 29 pieces of work that are on display at the Koel art gallery.

Using his camera lens as a tool, Raza banked on his understanding of digital technology to first capture images that concentrate on the details of his subject and then play with the balance of colour to create images that go back and forth between the abstract and the definitive.

Raza also switched between photographic paper and watercolour paper to play with the quality of an image - glossy at times to stay true to a photograph and at times more grainy to accentuate the play of light and dark.

While not all of the photographs convey the artist’s chosen theme effectively, there were some pieces that truly stood out. The strongest among the show was a minimalist impression of twigs -  dark lines scored against an emboss-like white background - that brought the entire show together. Other more obvious photographs, such as the last two pieces of the show, also highlighted the serenity of the subject in its black-and-white glory.

An interesting part of the exhibition was the fact that none of the pieces were titled, deliberately so as to leave the subject open to interpretation.

“There are no titles to any of the images. I am of the opinion that it is the individual viewer and their interpretation of any art that truly defines the success or failure of an image and thus creates a title for a specific piece. I request you to take the time and give a title to the photographs,” the artist asked of the viewer.

The show started on September 16 and will continue till the end of the month.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2010.