Eyeing Islam through the lens

Young Brazilian diplomats capture Muslim diversity in Brazil for a photographic book.

ISLAMABAD:

Foreign diplomats tend to experience Pakistan through a curious and ambivalent lens, learning about its manifold nuances through an exchange of ideas with the local landscape and its people. Young Brazilian diplomats Helena Jornada and Thomaz Napolaéo have embraced the precarious geography of Pakistan, seeking to draw out similarities between the two countries via the powerful visual tool of photography.

Last summer, the spirited diplomats devoted a large part of their vacation in Brazil to capturing the diversity of Muslims as a prominent cultural influence and a paradigm for assimilation. Returning to Islamabad with hundreds of images, the two set out to put together a narrative through their combined documentation of mosques, community centres, worshippers and leaders. Their efforts culminated in a wonderful exhibition, ‘Islam in Brazil’, showcased at the National University of Science and Technology earlier this month. The images are also preserved as a coffee-table book with the same title.

Helena Jornada and Thomaz Napolaéo’s images relate the duality of a modern culture absorbing facets of a centuries-old religion. PHOTOS: MYRA IQBAL\EXPRESS

“It wasn’t just about educating Pakistanis about Brazil’s diversity, but also about immersing ourselves in a religion and its subsequent sub-culture, that we had grown up amidst, though observed from afar,” shares Jornada, who is the third-secretary to Brazilian Ambassador in Pakistan and is currently on her first diplomatic assignment.

When Jornada first arrived in 2010, she had no fears or misconceptions and was in awed for reasons she did not expect. Napolaéo, who studied journalism and had a prior interest in the region, was indelibly drawn to the diversity of the country; something he had known little about before his arrival two years earlier than Jornada. “Each province has its own flavour, from language to cuisine, and each is, therefore, a wonderfully unique experience,” he says.

Helena Jornada and Thomaz Napolaéo’s images relate the duality of a modern culture absorbing facets of a centuries-old religion. PHOTOS: MYRA IQBAL\EXPRESS

In their book Islam in Brazil Jornada and Napolaéo, for whom photography is a hobby, have used photographs as an ethnographic tool, seeking out the influences of Islam in Brazil and its 1.5 million Muslim population, largely made up of immigrants from Arab countries. The images relate a sense of acceptance and duality of a modern culture absorbing facets of a centuries-old religion.

“The mosque I photographed in Porto Alegre was a wonderful instance of Brazilian assimilation, because it shared space with a Lutheran Church,” says Jornada, who attended Friday prayers for the first time at the same mosque.

For Napolaéo, it was the microcosmic observation of Muslims from various regions gathering to pray at the mosque of Brazil, nestled in the cosmopolitan Sau Paulo, that resonated with him. In the 29-year-old first secretary’s visual portfolio, young men of various origins wearing bright Western outfits are seen bowing in prayer together at an unassuming community centre.

Ambassador of Brazil Alfredo Leoni, who has been living in Pakistan since 2009, has shown great commitment to cultural exchange and the use of art as a vehicle for greater understanding and involvement between the two countries. The photographic endeavour is part of Leoni’s patronage.

Helena Jornada and Thomaz Napolaéo’s images relate the duality of a modern culture absorbing facets of a centuries-old religion. PHOTOS: MYRA IQBAL\EXPRESS

Jornada and Napolaéo hope to extend the reach of  their photographic lens in Pakistan, and continue their project in Brazil, in order to observe and capture other religions in their native country. “It is our mission to especially engage with schools and universities, in order to build strong ties with the Pakistani community at large.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2013.

Like Life & Style on Facebook, follow @ETLifeandStyle on Twitter for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.