This Chandigarh-based self-taught artist stresses she sees herself not just as a photographer but in fact a creative director…writes Sukant Deepak
Her subjects are constantly longing — though never trapped in it. Nostalgia, memory, and the need for tenderness never leave any frame. A certain symphony passes through her different series.
In the dreamscapes she sees through her viewfinder, 29-year-old photographer Farheen Fatima, recipient of the Toto Photography Award (2022), whose work has been featured by Apple, Getty Images Reportage, and VSCO, it was people’s perception of her photographs that ‘guided’ her towards the themes she explored later.
“When I started photographing, many viewers pointed an underlying emphasis on memory. But in my head that was not what I was really exploring, in fact my canvas was blank. So, in a way it was a reverse process — and I started exploring nostalgia and memory. Loneliness is another element that touches me. Whenever out, I seldom see an individual alone with herself/himself. He is either on the phone or doing something to distract himself. What he is avoiding?”
This Chandigarh-based self-taught artist stresses she sees herself not just as a photographer but in fact a creative director.
She remembers spraying water on roses in order to get better pictures when she was in ninth grade — her first memory of photography. Adding that the effort has forever been to let the simple speak different languages, the photographer, whose work has been exhibited in Spain, Malaysia, Germany, and the US, including India, at the India Art Fair in New Delhi and the UAE at the Sharjah Art Foundation smiles, “Rather than just capturing an image, I prefer to create it, precisely why I draw and paint on my photographs,” says this M.A. History of Art passout from Panjab University.
Fatima feels the world metamorphoses when she looks at it through the viewfinder. Believing that everyone is a control freak and feels anxious when things and circumstances do not behave as they want them to, she admits to being quite an anxious person.
“When I put something in front of the camera the way I want it, there is a sense of control that is being created in my mind and if it is translating visually, then there’s also a need to get validated. But in that process, you make peace with not having 15 things in control. And because I have been doing it for so long, I know how to. I will struggle with it but I can manage,” says the photographer who is now exploring analog photography.
Fatima, who shot an entire series during lockdown, capturing people over Facetime and Zoom has no plans to move to a bigger city.
“Well, they scare me. I prefer to go there on assignments and come back,” says the photographer, who has also co-authored a poetry book ‘Private Maps’ published by Human/Kind Press, Wilmington, US.
The photographer, represented by Photoink who discovered her on Instagram, says social media played a crucial role during her initial years.
“I always tell content creators, do not get in the trap of algorithms and fads. Stick to your beliefs,” says Fatima, who is currently working on a project at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), exploring changes in the lives of young women from small towns who come to study there.
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