Through the localens: Rediscover your surroundings in ‘a thousand words’

The Express Tribune’s photography competition amazes all who see.

KARACHI:

They say a 'picture paints a thousand words'. The people behind those thousand words, unfortunately, are often not given due credit for their talents in the country. While their pictures continue to astound and amaze all who see them, the people behind the lens are largely ignored.

When The Express Tribune invited entries for a photography competition, thousands of aspiring photographers happily obliged. The competition, Localens, was part of The Express Tribune Education Initiative and invited amateur photographers to send in their pictures based on the theme, 'Rediscover your surroundings'. Of the thousands of entries received, thirty were carefully selected by judges to be displayed at the Alliance Francaise in Karachi.

The judges for Localens were Jean-François Chénin, freelance photojournalist, Max Becherer and photographer, Izdeyar Setna.

At the opening ceremony of the exhibition on Saturday, an aspiring photographer, Mohammad Ali, believed that exhibitions could play a vital role in promoting photography as a form of art. "There is not much future for photographers in Pakistan as compared to other countries. Exhibitions and competitions are a great source of encouragement for youngsters like us."

The director of Alliance Francaise Karachi, Jean-François Chénin, one of the partners of the competition, told The Express Tribune that though he genuinely liked all the pictures on display, his favourite was one by Ribqa Raza. The image showed school girls waving their chalkboards to grab their teacher's attention. "All the students are looking towards the other side, except for one," he smiled. Other partners for the exhibition, which will run till May 22, include Nokia and the US State Department.

At one corner, the winning photographs were put up on display. Sikandar Hayat Khan, from Lahore, grabbed the top prize for his picture of labourers drying a harvest of paddy crops. In second place was Asfand Majeed, whose picture shows a busy lane in GuruMandir, bustling with activity outside food joints. In third place was Mehlum Sadriwala who captured an old man walking near the Wazir Khan Mosque at dawn. The winners will be awarded prizes at a ceremony on March 22.

Among other pictures on display are those of a cat and a girl lying together on the floor at the Bhit Shah Mazar and a rusting Volkswagen car stationed at Lines Area.

A teacher, Sara Huzaifa, who had come to see the exhibition with three other women, said that the pictures were a mirror to our reality and were very thought-provoking.

Another visitor, Pervaiz, who had come to the exhibition with his nephew, said, "These pictures capture the elements of our surroundings that society has come to take for granted." A photography teacher, who has been teaching the subject for the last 22 years, Rehmatullah Khan, said that the pictures were of very good quality and were a testament to the photographers' talents. "The surroundings have been aptly taken into account and rediscovered through the lens by these fine artists," he explained. Khan, however, advised that the pictures would have looked even better if they had been framed properly.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2014.