Knowing Where To Stand

Traveling Exhibition, Spring 2022-Spring 2024

Asher Imtiaz’ photographs image the unusual grace of neighborly kindness. But the visual purity and quiet of these compositions betray the complexity of such unlikely, often remarkable encounters. Talking to strangers never gets any easier, but Imtiaz is as well practiced in this skill as he is with exploring unknown territories – geographic and cultural. Since making his home in the American mid-west, his photography has embraced more fully this symbolism of border crossings. Unwilling to settle for just what the camera records, Imtiaz seeks to find common ground with those neighbors who also know the joys and sorrows of the sojourn. In this way, his photographs create much-needed space for these new friends – spaces to simply be; to breathe, rest, or grieve. It’s a mutual hospitality, receiving the concerned notice of a befriending stranger and returning it too. These explorations have not only offered him numerous fresh subjects but, more importantly, many formative friendships. In the absence of certainty, in the loss of home, amid the fear of what’s next, his photographs exercise the simple kinship of being there. Being present. Being seen. — Dr. Taylor Worley

Shekib Rahmani - Tucson, AZ 2022.
A freelance photographer from Afghanistan who is published at several places via AP and AFP. He is one of more than 70,000 Afghans that were evacuated in August 2021. "It was very heart-breaking to leave my family, friends, my home and country and be alone in those dangerous moments." ... "I want to work here without fear, I want to study and continue my photography." Shekib was even taking photos in the last moments from inside the military plane, during the evacuation. "Inside the plane, I was very distressed, I didn't know where I was going, where my future would be. But I was hoping for a new start and for safety". From Afghanistan to Qatar to Virginia in the US, he ended up in Fort McCoy, Wisconsin where he stayed for 4 months. On November 30th, he was relocated to Arizona, and currently living there.

Aline and her son Alex. Tucson, Arizona 2022.
"*I don't want to forget my language.*" Aline and her son Alex photographed outside their house in Tucson, AZ. Aline's family from Burundi went to Tanzania as refugees. She was born in Tanzania and moved to the US when she was 17. "*Struggle- that's the first thing I remember from my time there. We struggle too much. No food, no job, no clothes, no nothing. But we cannot forget. Some people forget where they come from*." She is planning to visit Burundi for the first time in her life next year. "*I have a lot of family but I don't know them and they don't know me.*" Talking about others from Burundi she says that "*When they come here, they change. They want to be black americans. They don't want to speak their language. That's no good. I speak my language.*" Language of Burundi is Kirundi.

“The most political decision you make is where you direct people’s eyes.”

— Win Wenders in The Act of Seeing