KARACHI: A book of photographs titled Crossroads by Arif Mahmood was launched at the Canvas Art Gallery on Saturday evening.

Speaking on the occasion artist Nimra Bucha said she had known Mahmood for 20 odd years, when she was very young working for the Newsline magazine. She said she was an admirer of the photographer, not a photo expert. Going down memory lane, she told a select audience that the first major piece that she wrote for the magazine was on the revival of cinema, and it was because of Mahmood’s beautiful photos, including those of Karachi’s cinemas, that the article got a big spread and she, as a journalist, big break.

On his art, Ms Bucha said Mahmood was a streetwalker. He would walk from his office to places like Zainab Market and Pakistan Chowk and take pictures. Although he used words like hunt, capture, whisper etc to describe his creative process, he was not a predator; he was a lurker, she remarked. His images, she was of the view, retained the sanctity of whatever subject he chose to focus on. Quoting another photographer, Farid Alvi, she said Mahmood was interpreting Karachi for the past two decades, as the city was his beloved.

On his growth as an artist, Ms Bucha said she had seen his passion for photography increase and his gaze becoming compassionate. “His work is about seeing rather than showing off,” she commented.

Arif Mahmood’s third publication of photographs, Crossoads, launched

Artist Moeen Faruqi said Crossroads was the third book of a series (Philosophy and Flamenco on the Roof being the previous two) and hoped a fourth was in the offing. He said Mahmood was a computer savvy person, therefore it was ‘strange’ that he in his career stuck with film because, unlike in digital art, on film there’s no manipulation or deleting of the shot. Expanding on the merits of the book, he said Mahmood by coming up with the publication had not only created art with photography but with the form of the book as well. He then talked about some of the images in the book that constituted, among other subjects, photos of his family members.

In his short speech, Mahmood thanked all those people who helped him publish the book. He said he often advised photography buffs, especially his students that “Get out of your comfort zone, of your cocoon and observe life”. He remarked that the book was his personal quest. “I share what I see. I’m a stalker and collector of images,” he added.

The walls of the Canvas Gallery were adorned with some of his pictures which the attendees saw with great interest.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2015

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