A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Islamic photo exhibition opens |
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| Anonymous |
| 10/23/02 at 13:54:11 |
| The Times October 23, 2002 The Prophet motive by Joanna Pitman Robin Laurance's journey to photograph Islam turned into a mission to explain Portrait of Islam Olivier Foyer, National Theatre IN THE EARLY days of photography traveller-photographers set out to capture the sublime godliness of their world with the spirit of pioneer explorers. Photography was considered an instrument of instruction, designed to provide documentary evidence of the sociological and political patchwork that made up the world’s riches. As a result, their work was defined more by its moral message and usefulness than by its photogenic content. Today, with the mass of information pumped around the world by the 24-hour international media machine, traveller-photographers prefer a clear aesthetic agenda. Such were the intentions, at least, of the photojournalist Robin Laurance, who set out six years ago to photograph the Muslim world, or as much of it as he could sensibly cover. “I did it for no better reason than that it seemed to be wonderfully photogenic. And for that I make no apology.” As he headed through North and West Africa, the Near and Middle East, South Asia and South-East Asia, he found that a political dimension was soon added to his journey. “It was clear that Islam was a growing force in our world; and while aspects of Western culture were admired and emulated, there were also signs of a growing resentment towards these Western nations whose very culture was proving so popular. It was also clear that Islam was misunderstood in the West. And because it was misunderstood it was feared, and because it was feared it was in turn resented and sometimes vilified.” Laurance’s journey was no longer a search for strong pictures, but a mission to show how different Islam is from the stereotyped image so often portrayed in the West. In his attempt to photograph Islam without the fundamentalists, the militants and the terrorists, this intrepid photographer hauled his camera equipment around cities, through deserts and to remote outcrops of rock. For his troubles, he had rocks hurled at him, was arrested, had to hire a bus when civil strife took all cars and taxis off the streets of Indonesia, and had to bribe his way into Libya. But the results are gorgeous, and much more than travel documents. If you visit the Olivier Foyer in the National Theatre, you will find more than 50 of them on display and a lushly illustrated book to accompany them. Laurance has given equal emphasis in this show to the pedestrian, the divine and the beautiful. The result is an oblique narrative journey through the Islamic world that fascinates. In Algeria he photographed a sword maker posing at his shop front holding an enormous, intricately decorated weapon. “Look how big my dagger is,” the man seems to be saying as he glares with furious suspicion out of his black headdress at Laurance’s lens. In Libya he captured a Tuareg horseman of the Sahara seated on a camel against a sizzling deep blue sky. The man’s face is shrouded in the white fabric of his turban, his body completely concealed in purple robes. All we can see of him are his eyes, focused on some distant desert landmark as he yanks the camel’s head back, forcing its mouth open and exposing a set of large yellow teeth. The camera jumps from one subject to the next and one country to the next (although there are strangely few of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country), so that the exhibition feels a little like a visit to a developing laboratory in which anonymous snapshots come off the production line in a continuous ribbon of small oblong images. Many of the images are like half-told stories, with just enough information supplied for the viewer to imagine the rest. The shot of a Kuwaiti mother and daughter buying a wedding dress is a marvellous picture of the incongruities of our world. Both women are shrouded entirely in black as they stand knee deep in the billowing tulle and satin of white wedding dresses discarded on the floor. In the event, it will be only the groom and the female guests who will be treated to the sight of the bride dressed in this splendid confection. In Lahore cartloads of people are pulled by scrawny horses, scraps of food are offered for sale on the grimy broken pavements, and a goat wanders around. Posted above eye level are the myriad decorative billboards advertising the latest in violence, unrequited love and family feuds from the region’s thriving film industry. A few of the images look like a corporate photographer’s shots or like the quick work of a jobbing photo-journalist; but the subject matter is intriguing and on the whole Laurance’s lively compositions bear close scrutiny. Portrait of Islam is at the Olivier Foyer, National Theatre, until November 9 (where is this?) |
| 10/23/02 at 13:55:50 |
| Anonymous |
| Re: Islamic photo exhibition opens |
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| BrKhalid |
| 10/25/02 at 06:44:18 |
| Asalaamu Alaikum ;-) [quote]Portrait of Islam is at the Olivier Foyer, National Theatre, until November 9 (where is this?) [/quote] South Bank of the River Thames in Central London |
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