Essentially, the purpose of photography is to communicate and document moments in time. When you take a photograph, you're showing a moment that was frozen through a picture. People often use photography as a medium where the main focus is to communicate their thoughts and ideas to others.

Photography is a language, which uses visual elements in lieu of words, therefore, just as any language, it can be used for artistic purposes. Just like English, which is perfectly appropriate for writing a rental contract with a landlord and equally good for creating most beautiful poetry, photography serves its dual purpose without any contradiction.

What distinguishes a true artist is his or her having something important to say and striving to deliver this message to the world. It is the human ability to interpret any piece of information (including visual) in a variety of ways that gives an artist the freedom from being literal. Good photographers do it exceptionally well. Their work is always open for interpretation; and it asks questions rather than gives answers.

As any visual art form, photography exploits vulnerabilities of the human visual perception and can make us experience emotions that move us and compel us to do things that we otherwise would not even think of.

We often think that why photography can influence people so profoundly? Unlike painting, photography requires a real physical object to be there to take a picture of it. This very fact is the reason we perceive any photo as something more real than any other type of visual representation of reality. This is something that is truly unique to photography, and it took some time for artists who chose photography as their means of creative expression to understand.

The team of MAG The Weekly just recently covered the Mini Thesis Show which was based on Communication Design at the Arts Council Karachi, where the artsy students displayed their work on the topics as per their liking and their expertise.

Sad Day Stop Bullying

One topic that caught my attention immediately, was from the very talented Fizzah Fatima, who focused on creating an awareness campaign for everybody to stop bullying. Her focus was around all the places including schools and colleges. Her work demonstrated the severe effects bullying can leave on the victims and how badly it can affect their mental health.

Enjoy My Life, Proud To Be Deaf

I was very fascinated by the colourful posters at one corner that displayed the dedication and hard work of the very talented Saira Iqbal, who proved that no barrier can stop a human being from achieving something if he or she really works for their aims. This proud and young artist portrayed her work in a comic style conveying that no deformity of any form can hold her back from enjoying her life.

Hum Aur Animals

We often come across violent incidents against animals which really break our heart. Zeenat Soomro, a young artist focused on how we can play our part doing something good and valuable for the animals that can help them in any way possible. She also emphasised that a veterinary is also needed at homes for their essential necessities and all the treatments.

Commercialism vs Culture

M. Nazeef Shaikh, explored the old area of Jubilee and showed the viewers of his work while reminiscing the nooks and corners of the very famous and one of the most prominent areas though his lens. His work was crafted with immense neatness while paying attention to every little detail.

Sign In

Sign In is an app which is designed by Akash Kumar, for the deaf people from them to communicate anytime and anywhere with the people who aren’t aware from the sign language. In my opinion, it is a very noble move to help the people who are specially abled in order for them to lead a normal life like any of us and so that they don’t face any hurdles in their daily tasks.

Resident of Jinnahabad

Asad Ali, a talented resident of Jinnahabad, shared his relationship with the old Timber market of the area as a part of the project Khoj, to portray and deep dive into critically understanding the city of lights Karachi and its complexities.

Rang o Nasal

Rang o Nasal is a collection of work from Sachin Ramjee, who belongs to a minority Hindu community and has lived in Karachi since generations. His work was an ode to Karachi, which has several different minorities and people from different cultures living together in it. His shots were neat and very precisely handled with all the details.

Urooj o Zawaal

One key topic that took over the exhibition was exploring and getting to know about different old heritage areas of Karachi. K. Mubashir Saeed, a talented photographer also put to detail the old area of Jubilee and captured each and every little detail about the area very nicely. I found it very mesmerising to explore the area through the artist’s lens. •