The American-born photographer Fazal Sheikh is exhibiting his ‘… two most recent Indian projects. LADLI (“Beloved Daughter”) explores the lives of girls and women facing perils that include infanticide, bride sale, prostitution, and “dowry death.” MOKSHA (“Heaven”) focuses on the city of Vrindavan, home to a community of outcast widows’ from throughout the India‘ at the Princeton University Art Museum.
The exhibit is set to open next week (October 2) and a panel, including the historian Gyan Pakrash, will discuss the work. According to the Museum publicity, Sheik’s work centers on ‘… the experiences of displaced and imperiled people in Kenya, Somalia, Pakistan, and India, supersede political abstractions and remind us of the central importance of human rights in a volatile and changing world.’ If you are in the greater New York City area it may be worth the one hour train ride from the city.
So my main reason for posting though is also to point Africa-watchers to that earlier work photographing Somali refugees, mainly women, over a decade in refugee camps in Kenya’s northeast. You can view A Camel for the Sun (the product of that work) in its entirety either online or downloading it as a ZIP file, at Sheik’s website.
* The image above, from A Camel for the Sun, is taken from his website.
