June 28, 2008

It is only recently that photography, as an art form, has taken root and gained prominence in Pakistan. Till not too long ago, a photographer earned his bread and butter through fashion photography and gained recognition due to its mass appeal. In recent years however, especially since art schools like NCA, BNU and IVSAA have established curricula and full-fledged photography degrees that other genres are coming to the fore. This is evident from the rising number of photography exhibitions being held around the country. In these exhibitions once sees a lot of experimentation and increasingly varied subjects, styles and themes being explored.

A group of students from the photography department of Beaconhouse National University, recently displayed an interesting collection of their work at the Nairang Galleries in Lahore which was based entirely on documenting the past grandeur of the Rohtas Fort near Lahore and bringing it to the attention of the public.

The idea behind the photographic exploration of the Fort was developed when some of the students requested their teachers to take them on a ‘field trip’. Thus, a group of students and faculty members trotted along to the Rohtas Fort for a three-day trip. “This structure has great variety, history and for a creative person is a manageable subject. I leave for Dina the night before, wake up before sunrise to work with that light and then at dusk; for landscape photography light is important, the shadows are soft,” notes Malcolm Hutcheson appreciatively, who teaches photography at BNU. “A good mixture of students, few beginners, some in the middle of their academic years, took part in this study. It was entirely the students’ initiative and they made all the arrangements by themselves, including this display of their work,” he adds.

The show comprised thirty-six photographs, with each student looking to capture a different angle of the magnificent structure in varied shades and lights.

Sana Khan has photographed the rise of the edifice of the Rohtas Fort and follows it up by selecting texturally repetitive designs. The age-old brickwork is rough and angular and she patches these with steps that go up or come down. Displaying just one photograph is Asif Khan who experiments with scanned ‘cut ups’ of photo-negatives as foreground to the positives in the main subject. Choosing a singular motif that resonates in the quiet of a once lived-in fort is Hassan Khan; the selection of the circular intent could be a focus to invoke cosmic energy that can bring to life a decaying pile.

‘Sohail Gate’ is Malcolm Hutcheson’s work; the rectangular picture is a fortress with an entrance. The thorny brambles guard the opening while the panoramic view is made interesting with a fortification of the building set at an angle. Mehar Tiwana has stepped inside the Fort to capture the cracked floors and the various decorative details that have survived the kings and generals who once inhabited it. She does however manage to see light at the end of the tunnel; one of her photographs shows two small holes in the wall at the end of a long corridor and a door less opening which continue to let light shine through.

Halima Jabbar is overawed by the sheer magnificence of the Rohtas Fort and it shows in her work. One of her photographs shows a panoramic view of the Fort set against pink sky just before sunrise. In another photograph, one of the enormous gateways of the Fort stands forlorn and inaccessible. Taimoor Mubashar’s photograph has a perspective of an outer wall of the Fort that still stands firm while paying attention to the scattered grass growing around it.

This exhibition is certainly a commendable effort by a group of photographers who have visited this long neglected historical treasure — one that has had romantic overtures, is an architectural study, has had great strategic significance in the past — and displayed all this and their own point of view through their cameras. Such photographic documentation of our architectural heritage will go a long way in not just reminding the public of their existence but also help in preserving them — at least in public memory.