KARACHI: Sattar Buksh have launched their new gallery space SHOWCASE, located on the café’s upper floor, by hosting a photography exhibition titled “Walking the fine line between light and shade” by Amean J.

The gallery’s first exhibition held its opening day on Wednesday, December 11th and will continue till Tuesday, December 24th. The exhibition features a series of black and white portraits that are meant to evoke the interplay between both light and shadow. According to Amean, since light is such a fundamental aspect of photography he wished to explore the dialectic between spaces that are lit and their antithesis, spaces that remain devoid of light. The portraits themselves are of shadows belonging to everyday objects, people and architecture, which were taken as part of a travel log during the photographers stay in Beijing.

There is a level of control which Amean extends over the viewers of his portraits, in that he attempts to direct and lead the audience using their senses to reach the conclusion that he is trying to ultimately convey. He stated that he chose to use a black and white medium so that his audiences would not be distracted from the central theme of his series, since the minimalist nature of black and white mediums instinctively forces one to view the world in terms of light and dark. A high contrast has been used in this series, in order to further emphasise the spaces that were washed with light and those that were draped in shadows, even at the cost of losing particular shades of grey that are commonly sought in black in white photography. Four different sizes have been used through out the exhibition ranging from the miniature to the imposing. Thus, the audience must physically adjust themselves to view and take in the portraits. To view the miniatures one is forced to lean in closer and focus more discerningly on the details which they contain, where as the largest pieces allow the audience to stand back and take in the imagery without having to focus nearly as intently.

SHOWCASE hope that this will be the first of many more exhibitions to be hosted at their new gallery. - Text by Asif Umar