I’m rounding up my initial thoughts on Burqas and what they mean and what I’m trying to say.
- All wars are fought on the basis of dehumanisation. On finding such great differences between us and them, that it is all right to rape, maim, and pillage the other. Burqas are a graphic illustration of this difference with the Islamic world.
- Osama’s wife’s story of the American in an airport gaping at her.
- The quran and why the women must cover themselves.
- France and the banning of the burqa.
- War photos of grieving anonymous women in burquas.
- I want to get closer, closer than the viewer would usually get on the street and show the eyes. I want to show personality. I also want to show emotion, build up an emotional score throughout the series. Photography must imply a story, hint that something is about to happen, is happening, or just has, it cannot show it actually happening (it is limited to fractions of a second). Photography must be precise, it only has one chance.
- Bangladesh is not a country that mandates that the Burqua be worn, it is a choice, what is the result of that choice?
- They wear it to be chaste, to be good chattel, protecting what is of value in them.
- Many men here stare, do not have culture of looking away. Prize beauty.
- They still wear patterns and colours.
- Some reveal a lot of their face, some only the eyes. I found myself being drawn to the ones showing the least.
- Thoroughly impractical, very hot.
- These are street photographs captured in an instance, without permission. There is a deep transgression in trying to find out more. Going behind the veil without going too far. Without removing the mystery.
- I get my legitimacy, my permission to shoot, by knowing that what I’m doing is worth something. That it will benefit others at the cost of making many of these women uncomfortable in having their picture taken without being asked.
- Not just socio-political issues, but issues of my own desire, of fantasy, of frailty, of mystery etc.
- Flirting with Sharmin and then her wearing a burqua 5 years ago. It was a joke. ‘Like a ghost!’
- Photography deals with details, with what is there in front of us, but out of this reality a lot more is suggested, a lot more is assumed and imputed.
- Other aspects to explore:
- Burqas in the context of other girls who are fashionable
- In context of stores and bright lights
- With men watching them.
Posted 2 years ago
