One has to only mention the words 'photography in Karachi' and quite a few names pop up out of the pudding like ripe raspberries—Dr Altamash Kamal, Farah Mahbub, Shamyl Khuhro, Tapu Javeri, Arif Mehmood, Naushad Alam, F. Mohsin, Kairo, Tahreer, Feroze Qaiser, Zana Khan and Shahid Durrani. Last week one felt compelled to add another name—Stephan Andrew.

I hadn't heard of Andrew until the Photospace Gallery, Karachi, announced that they were holding a solo exhibition of his photographs. What one found particularly intriguing was that the photographer had dipped his anchor into the well of Robert Frost's poetry, and after waving it about a bit picked up that delightful verse from Trial by Existence which formed the title of his exhibition.

“And from a cliff-top is proclaimed / The gathering of the souls for birth, / The trial by existence named, / The obscuration upon earth. / And the slant spirits trooping by / In streams and cross- and counter-streams / Can but give ear to that sweet cry / For its suggestion of what dreams!”

The studio photographer, armed with all the accoutrements of modern science, has a distinct edge over the photo-journalist, accustomed to seeing things as they actually are and not as he would like them to be. In the studio the man behind the camera can spend endless hours, as Yousuf Karsh used to do, studying his subject, waiting for that fetching look, that singular gesture, that special mood, before he presses the button.

The press photographer doesn't have time on his side and often has a split second to capture a scene; like the time when a Dawn photographer caught that look of extreme apprehension on the face of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the early '70s. The PPP leader was engrossed in a meeting with Balochi nationalist leaders, when a pole inexplicably lost its moorings and their tent suddenly collapsed over their heads.

Some of Andrew's 27 snapshots which adorned the walls of the gallery (a handful of which appeared in colour), were taken after completing an assignment. The rest were taken off duty, often on a frayed genteel shoestring. They were nevertheless enlivening and embraced and extended the mutual inheritance of the photo-journalist and the visual artist. Though they were essentially the work of a press photographer, they nevertheless had a touch of artistry about them, and managed to capture that sense of detached weariness which one finds among people who live on the fringe of society, eking out a living, praying for the windfall that never comes.

The pictures were sharp and crisp and the theme which ran like a thread through the fabric of a mundane monotonous life was played with a suffocating, sparse, buttoned-down power that was quite riveting. It was not quite Kafkaesque in mood or spirit, but there was, nevertheless, an underlying sense of foreboding in some of the images.

Though Andrew started wielding his camera in 1998, it wasn't until a couple of years ago that he joined White Star at the Dawn Media Group where his work is regularly featured in the group's publications. He has also been sent on assignments to far flung outposts of the republic.

But the occasion that was a red letter day in his scrap book and which he fondly remembers is when Private Photo Review, a prestigious Italian publication that specialises in black and white prints, decided to publish one of his pictures on the cover of one of their issues, in preference to submissions by 15 leading Pakistani photographers. He has previously participated in two group exhibitions. 'Trial by existence' is his first solo exhibition.

Deciding which of the pictures one should select to portray this young man's talent is not easy, as each image had its own motif. However, out of the many black and white offerings, three caught this reviewer's fancy. The first portrayed the doorway of a house bordering a shop with the corrugated steel shutter pulled down, and the reflection of a child's face in a somewhat misshapen mirror.

The second showed the legs of a couple who appear to be engaged in some sort of modern dance, united by the vague consciousness of a shared activity, with ever lengthening shadows coursing across a strip of canvas. And the third shows an elderly man resting against a plastered wall, somewhere in the Frontier. Though the picture is posed, excellent use has been made of light and shade, and the detail on the extreme right is of special interest.

And finally there was this delightful coloured photograph of a bicycle horn and red flower, casting a nervous vigilance over a man crossing over freshly painted white lines on a road.

Stephan Andrew still has some way to go before he starts to bag prizes and awards. But he is on the right track. He has considerable talent, infinite patience and a fine sense of composition. And above all, he has boundless enthusiasm which will carry him along on his journey.