Compass

I have traveled most of my life; moving from one country to another, adapting from one culture to another. Because of this, as an adult, I have realized that I belong, not to one particular place but to many places as I absorb every place that I go to, within me.

This, to me, is what lies at the core of every Pakistani woman. Despite living within perimeters prescribed to her by someone else, she manages to adapt and embody the environment she is part of. She is a little girl, cocooned in the safety of home and family; she is just part of the scenery sometimes, but actually the force holding an entire picture together – she blazes in the sky of her universe, bright and life-giving, so essential, yet just part of the system.

Being an artist, I see the world in a different light. As an adult, I have looked for something special in all the places that I have been, something that speaks to me and has a meaning that runs deeper than just at the surface. At times, I look for a supreme being, knowing that it is all around, just like the divinity that resides within each of us yet goes unnoticed, exactly like the cosmic essentiality of a woman.

But am in awe when I see light hitting certain object making a certain shape and form, which has a profound effect on me; a sort of chiaroscuro setting, where the dark and light plays to add depth and dimension to the photograph. Ideally, a photograph is taken at a certain time and place representing the subject matter, but it is more than that now. It is the realization that things are not as simple as black and white anymore but the actual portray of a feeling which is represented in the photograph. Things seem more clearer now if I go back to a place, I find something different and more absolute. I have come to understand that there is no end to the amount of learning one has.