Featured photographers in the issue include François Daireaux, Amber Hammad, Asad Hayee, Malcolm Hutcheson, Mariam Ibraaz, Tooraj Khamenehzadeh, Naiza Khan, Sana Khan, Edwin Koo, Arif Mahmood, Asef Ali Mohammad, Aun Raza, Saptarshi Sanyal and Marylise Vigneau.
With featured texts by Tehmina Ahmed, Aasim Akhtar, Saira Ansari, Naazish Ata-Ullah, Zahid R.Chaudhary, Salima Hashmi, Saskya Jain, Durriya Kazi, Quddus Mirza, Hammad Nasar, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Insiya Syed and Ilona Yusuf.
Surge explores the evolving relationship between art-practice and documentary tropes as they are taking shape in Pakistan. With a general emphasis on the notion of a surge—a sudden and powerful development in identity and location-specific imagery, the issue speculates a renewed understanding of the future of photo-practice within a country that has witnessed a swiftly evolving ‘state’, leading to a range of activity around personal expression and social awareness. An emphasis on personal space and gender relations as well as a consideration of private archives and a shifting gaze are also insinuated by the thematic, and these may be explored through portraiture, landscapes, advertising, fashion, street photography, photo-journalism and conceptual forms to mention a few prevalent approaches.
Consequently, while making a preliminary foray into the issue, some of the broader predicaments that came to mind were: what constitutes the physical geography of photography today? How are images from Pakistan embedded in different social, cultural, and historical conditions? And what does the experience reveal about the global condition of photography, and how does that (if at all) change ones experience of ‘place’?
There will be a presentation during the opening by Amber Hammad and Insiya Syed, two photographers participating in the exhibition.
The PIX team:
Rahaab Allana | Nandita Jaishankar | Tanvi Mishra | Philippe Calia | Akshay Mahajan | Arati Devasher
