I have been confused by the critical silence about Sasha Baron Cohen’s new film The Dictator. I suppose it is always confusing when in the face of a product singularly based on the idea of stringing together a couple of hours worth of racial, societal, cultural and ethnic stereotypes and hoping to get a laugh out of them receives no critical commentary.
The Spinning Head
A Photographer Confronts His World
Maggie Steber’s Rite Of Passage
Its been a long time since I last wrote on this blog. In fact, in a recent discussion with Prison Photography’s Pete Brook’s I even declared the blog near dead. But frankly I have not had the heart to shut it down because each time I do I find that someone is still reading it and insisting on discussing it with me. So it remains alive, though I do have to get back to writing more and speaking less. I seem to be making my arguments in person these days and avoiding putting down on the blog. Details »
A Valentine’s Day / Guantanamo Bay Love Story
“You are the soul of my life. You are the best of my heart. You are the light of my eyes. You are the oxygen in my lungs, you are the sun on my back, the sweetest taste of my mouth you are everything you are everything I need to live, to love, to be… Do you know how much you are important for my life. If you break I will break, if you become weak I will become weak and if you go I will go. You are my soul twin. I need you to be strong.”
From a letter written by Guantanamo Bay detainee Shaker Aamer to his wife / family
Shaker Aamer has been held at Guantanao Bay for nearly 10 years. He has never faced trial, or even been accused of any crimes. A story by The Independent revealed that the UK Government has spent £274,345 fighting Aamer in court, including preventing his lawyers viewing evidence that may prove his innocence and end more than a decade in US custody.
What I love about these Aamer’s words is that they help me cut past the tacky, commercial nature of this faux-holiday and be reminded that the emotion of ‘love’ can hold such a powerful meaning for a person and that it can literarily become a life line. It is easy to forget all this as we simply go through the motions and gestures of acts of love. It is easy to loose sight and feeling for the feelings of love, a longing and gentle openness to another, a memory – imaginary, fictitious, but nevertheless concrete in the emotions it creates, the heartbeats it inspires, the courage it gives birth to. Here, in the midst of our American made horror, live and breath souls that feel love and hold onto it every day simply to remain sane, and alive. How many of us can claim to feel such a love?
Shaker Aamer’s only crime seems to have been that he was what Daryl Li has called ‘…Muslim out of place…’ i.e. an Arab man in a country he ‘should not’ be in and hence suspected of being there for ‘terrorism’ activities. A Li explains in his paper A Universal Enemy? Legal Regimes of Exclusion and Exemption Under the ‘Global War on Terror’ that:
The application of a poorly defined category such as “foreign fighter” to a complex empirical reality of many different “foreign” Muslims necessarily occasions a set of particularly thorny, if not outright confused, problems of governance. Just as the standard refrain that one must distinguish between “moderate” (good) Muslims and “radical” (bad) Muslims presupposes the need to know all Muslims, the concern over foreign (Muslim) fighters necessarily renders (Muslim) foreigners into a categorical object that needs to be known and appropriately dealt with. Before long, however, the object of knowledge as constructed – Muslim foreigners – becomes a source of anxiety in itself. This is the problem of what can be called “Muslims out of place.” Details »
Welcome To Yet Another Attempt At A New Year: Occupy Wall Street New Year’s Eve Protest December 31st 2011
Occupy Wall Street Protest December 31st 2011 Zuccotti Park, New York (Click on image to see more) Copy Right Asim Rafiqui 2011 / 2012
Trevor Paglen Draws Us A Blank Or Things We Know We Don’t Know And Those That We Don’t Know We Know
I have written about Trevor Paglen’s amazing photographic works before, particularly his use of advanced optics to peek into America’s secret military sites. In a post written earlier called Photographing The Unseen Or What Conventional Photojournalism Is Not Telling Us About Ourselves I discussed his work and what it could possibly tell us more conventional photographers about the issues of our times and the subjects we have yet to tackle. Details »
Looking Back: Slough, UK, September 2007
Easter Mass, Slough
From the series The New Poland: Slough, UK
Looking Back: Gandakosa, Northern Iraq, January 2005
Mourners, Gandakosa, Northern Iraq, January 2005
From the series Between The Cross And The Kalashnikov: The Struggle of Iraq’s Assyrian Christians
Struggling To Write While One Is Lost…
Its been about two weeks since I wrapped up my India project work and returned to my home base in Stockholm. It has not been the easiest of transitions back and I clearly miss my friends, and my experiences in India. I miss India itself, what with all its lovely inconsistencies, inconveniences and incongruity all of which remind me, confirm for me, man’s ability to remain spontaneous, frail, and human. Now back in the overly disciplined, predictable, regimented world of Scandinavia, the contrast could not be higher, and the longing for the return could not be greater. Not that I sit here idealizing India, but during the last nine months of extensive travel and immersion in the country in pursuit of stories for my The Idea Of India project, I developed a greater appreciation for communities, societies and institutions not completely regimented, scheduled, and time-tabled under the demands of a deep and rigid state bureaucracy, driven by the singular value of efficiency and profitable returns, and determined to box its citizens into little compartments with innocuous titles like ‘vacation’, ‘work’, ‘weekends’, ‘time off’, ‘lunch break’, ‘meetings’, ‘going out’ and so on. Details »
Narcissus’ South Asian Progeny Or Careless Talk At The Delhi Photo Festival
Caravaggio's Narcissus
The Delhi Photo Festival’s, with its inaugural theme of ‘Affinity’, features a number of works that deal with questions of the personal. The festival contains a number of projects that focus on family, friendships, and individuals exploring personal issues with life and love. And much of the work is fascinating, creative and expressive. The personal and private works add an exciting counter point to some of the other exhibitions which reflect a more socially and public engagement. By and large however the festival has kept its feet firmly in the classic concerns of photojournalism even while exhibiting works that are more individual, and experimental. In this regard, the festival has already distinguished itself from many other such photo festivals happening around the world and is off to a wonderful start. Details »
Defense Of Human Rights Continuing Struggle For Justice For Pakistan’s Missing
From left to right: Reema Hayat, 3 yrs, Arshi Hayat, 6 years, Khoshair Osama Hayat, 10 years, Ali Sufiyan Hayat, 12 years, Abubakar Hayat, 14 years. Children of Shokat Hayat who disappeared into police and intelligence custody on 15th March 2009 and has not been heard of since. Copyright Asim Rafiqui from the series ‘Not Interesting If It Is Not Madness’
Amina Masood Junjua forwarded me the following this morning and I am posting it here as an act of support. For those of you unfamiliar with the work of this amazing woman, and the campaign for justice for those Pakistani’s who have become victims of the irrational, unjust and unquestioned tentacles of the ‘war against terror’ and have disappeared into Pakistani and American detention, torture and elimination.
As I Dance On This September 11th, 2011 Or Chosing Life Over Defeat
With each passing year, since that moment on September 11th, 2001, it has become harder and harder for me to participate in any official commemoration of this day. This year once again I find myself repulsed by the ‘festivities’ and ‘fanfare’ that surrounds this event, and the righteousness of the words coming out of the mouths of politicians, pundits, celebrities and citizens. The reasons for my reluctance should be quite obvious to perhaps even the most determinedly nationalist, and the most foolishly patriotic. Maybe not. Details »
The Hindu Right Sings The Blues Or How The Fear Of The Inconsequential Pervades The Soul Of The Righteous
A certain group of self appointed guardians of the faith are up in arms over an animated movie called Sita Sings The Blues in which graphic artist and animator Nina Paley weaves a dark moment of abandonment in her persona life into the story of Sita’s repeated abandonment by Ram, the man she is devoted to and loves absolutely. The protesters, most of whom seem to belong to some sort of modern day Hindu fundamentalist, reformist and revivalist institution – are up in arms about what they believe is an insult to sacred deities and to Hinduism in general. Details »
Idea Of India Project Update: With The Passing Of The Monsoon A Return To Maharashtra
Shrine of Maula Sahin, Paithan, Maharashtra
I am now in the final few weeks of this stage of the The Idea Of India project and focusing on key sites and stories from the state of Maharashtra. Details »
To the man who made me pay attention to beauty….
Dennis Ritchie died yesterday. Only those who have an intimate relationship to the world of software programming understand the gravity of this moment. Details »
In Support Of The Occupation
There is a strong element of disingenuousness about people who claim that they do not understand what this movement is about. It is as if they prefer not to notice that the people are occupying Wall Street itself, and not some random corner of the New York City. Scouring the trees while loosing sight of the forest, the naysayers are retreating back into the numbing, not-so-clear-predictability of their ‘safe’ lives while the very earth is changing under their very feet. Details »
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