KARACHI, Jan 29: Photography is the art of turning a captured moment into a yet-to-be-told story. Not all photographers can achieve that goal, because sometimes the arrested moment tends to circumvent reality and the photographer does not realise it. A smart and skillful camera-clicker knows this fact. Jahanzaib Najam and Owaiz Sheikh seem to believe in the dictum ‘call them as you see them’ (which holds true for good news reporters as well) with a great degree of conviction. This can be gauged from an exhibition of their photographic work, inaugurated at Art Chowk Gallery on Saturday, titled Hota hai shab-o-roz tamasha merey aage.

The title of the display says it all, as does the name that the two young men have given to their collaborative effort, Hama Zeest. It’s the nonstop, everyday, seemingly routine happenings which the general public tends to ignore, not artists. They find (or chance upon) meaning in them.

The exhibition contains pictures both taken in foreign countries (quite a few though) and in Pakistan. It is divided into five categories: Gora Fakir, Animal Kingdom, Cityscape, Children and Collage. And each image is accompanied by a couplet.

Gora Fakir (inkjet coated paper) by Owaiz Sheikh is primarily about the buskers that one gets to see in the West. One interesting piece among the four images in the group is of a drum player with his drum set outside Hard Rock Café in Toronto. The solitary figure of the musician could have given it a programmed look. But it is a candid shot. The phrase that the artist has chosen for this Gora Fakir is ‘Aey ishq-i-junoon pesha’.

The most striking part of the display, perhaps, is ‘Animal Kingdom’ by Jahanzaib Najam. One grab which needs to be mentioned is ‘Victim of a Bird’, in which there is a baby turtle whose shell has been harmed by a seagull causing a red, bloody patch appearing on the poor creature’s back. It’s an emotive shot accompanied by the couplet:

In aablon se paon ke ghabra gaya tha main Ji khush hua hai raah ko pur khaar dekh ker

On the other hand ‘Bath’ has a crow enjoying the water surrounding it. The couplet that the artist has found apt to describe ‘Bath’ is:

Fasl-i-gul aee phir ik baar aseeran-i-wafa Apney hi khoon ke darya mein nahaney nikley The black and white ‘It’s a Dog’s Life’ has the canine staring right into the camera as if trying to strike a pose for a photo-op:

Tum aa rahey ho ke bajti hain meri zanjeerein Na janey kia merey deewar-o-baam kehtey hain The Cityscape section by Owaiz Sheikh traces Karachi’s hubbub and the idiosyncrasies associated with it quite faithfully. Children’s portion takes the exhibition to a very basic level where young kids are shot in their leisure moments. ‘Good Morning’ by Jahanzaib Najam is an example of it.

The last category, Collage, has only one exhibit, ‘Adam’ where the two artists have assembled a few of their pictures, giving it a short film-like touch.

News is that both are working on a feature film.

The exhibition will run till Feb 8.—Peerzada Salman