Maneuvering through the cesspool of ‘content’ that is Instagram nowadays, is not easy. Narrative after narrative, there is a sense of monotony and surface level interactions that don’t resonate anymore. Ever so often however, during mindless scrolling, you come across an artwork or photograph that speaks to you and begins a dialogue within. For me, photographer Zayn Kamran’s images aroused a renewed sense of curiosity and excitement about what his lens captured and was trying to convey. Born and bred in Lahore, Zayn was always interested in the arts, yet somehow ended up with a degree in Computer Science. His heart wasn’t quite in it, he tells me. Bored and apathetic towards what he was pursuing, the photographer started exploring the colossal world of film and photography. ‘For an introvert like me, photography really helped me come out of my shell. It quickly became a tool of self expression,’ he asserts.
The photographer has always felt a fierce kinship with nature, light, shadows and textures, so the manner in which his lens captures spaces is not only idiosyncratic but also intimate. One feels an intense longing to not only inhabit the space but also delve deeper into its history and context. Speaking more about his inspiration, he explains, ‘how perfectly balanced is the work of God. This has always been my main source of inspiration. Films have really helped me enhance my visual language. I see a composition in every simple thing which would never strike a normal eye.’
Tactfully capturing the beauty of quotidian life in Karachi is the photographer’s series K-town. It speaks of an indescribable vastness that goes beyond what meets the eye. At first glance, the images built within me, the viewer, a dialogue with the conspicuous past — with the possibilities of everything the rundown walls and narrow corridors could have contained. On further engagement they evoked a rather interesting engagement with the silence that constantly shadows us, is within us despite the humdrum of life. Deconstructing K-town for us, Zayn adds, ‘Funnily enough, the K-town series is just snippets of whenever I visit Karachi. The city has an abundance of timeworn archaic locations that I love shooting at. There is just something about shooting at the city’s most mundane locations and showing them at their rawest. I guess you could say that’s my aesthetic.’
Growth and evolution is vital to Zayn when it comes to honing his skills. Perennially in the search of the right subject, frame and the perfect light, he strongly believes in how the process is just as important as the end result. In terms of his method, the subject forms an important aspect of his focus, he spells out, ‘I want my subjects to feel liberated. Capturing them in their true essence is what I do. Rawness is what most of my work leans towards. I guess, when you give your subjects room to breathe and aren’t actively trying to paint over their flaws for that “perfect” picture, a connection just forms automatically.’ When it comes to his visual language, Zayn’s narratives are far from being formulaic. Each photo he takes has intricate threads of thoughts weaved through them. Emotionally attached to the work he does, oftentimes his focal point is compositions and visuals that may lack commercial viability. He animatedly maintains however, ‘I deeply resonate with the pictures I take. An image should speak a story. Or else, what’s the point really?’
Talking further about how the pandemic has been treating him and his creativity, Zayn establishes how isolation fostered his observation skills further and opened him up to a whole new world that somehow got lost chasing life. He is of the opinion that, ‘the period of stillness, I would say, unclogged my head. I think I needed it. I reconnected with my love for landscape photography. Most of my work during isolation reflects the emptiness and serenity of deserted landscapes that were once bustling with life.’ While the creative enjoys engaging with stills, he has an ardent desire to work on films that got lost along the way as he undertook commercial projects. In the future, he is enthusiastic to make his own short film, centred around a tragedy and the baggage of memories it carries.
Text Unnati Saini
Date 10-08-2021
