15x4
4 photographers & 15 subjects

The Fantastic Four: Tapu Javeri, Amean J, Izdeyar Setna & Arif Mahmood

Four of the most well known names in photography are coming together in an exhibition, titled “15X4”, which opens today at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture art gallery. The exhibition will remain on display till Thursday April 19, 2007. The photographers of choice are Amean J, Arif Mahmood, Izdeyar Setna and Tapu Javeri. The exhibition centres around each of them photographing a list of fifteen subjects, mutually selected by the photographers themselves.

The subjects include perhaps Pakistan’s most famous social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi, the queen of Sufi music Abida Parveen, Dr. Adeeb Rizvi from the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation, our very own Ardeshir Cowasjee, one of the most well known musicians in the music industry Ali Azmat, one of the country’s leading architects Arif Hassan, the popular cross-dressing talk show host Begum Nawazish Ali, the CEO of Dawn Newspaper Hameed Haroon, book author and the Minister for Education and Literacy Hameeda Khuhro, one of Pakistan’s original super models Iraj Manzoor, cricket legend Javed Miandad, the first lady of the fashion industry Maheen Khan, the controversial yet entertaining actress Meera, Kathak dancer par excellence Naheed Siddiqui and one of the most well known sculptors in Pakistan, Shahid Sajjad.

This is by far a first artistic collaboration by a team of photographers or a group of visual artists in Pakistan. The exhibition aims to show the different perspectives of the same individuals that each photographer carries and the results are interesting.

Ali Azmat for example, Ali Azmat by Arif Mahmood is very different from the rock star persona he portrays in front of the camera and is portrayed as somewhat of a rebel or the trouble maker who lives next door.

Begum Nawazish Ali by Tapu Javeri is another favourite as; in one photograph he manages to capture the femininity and the graceful masculinity that the Begum and Ali Saleem encapsulate in one character while also depicting the glamour that Begum is known for personifying.

Naheed Siddiqui by Izdeyar is almost mystical as she, in a blur of red, holds out her hands as if to embrace while dancing.

Amean J manages to capture Ali Azmat with a secret smile playing on his lips while his interpretation of Hameed Haroon displays the otherwise self-assured Red Baron in a moment of uncharacteristic vulnerability that his expression displays, as if it crossed his face for a moment and had been captured.

The exhibition has managed to generate controversy even before it has opened, with the administration of the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture finding a photograph of Meera by Tapu Javeri a little inappropriate.

According to Tapu, “There was no objection initially, the gentleman running the gallery saw all the photographs, he first asked me about (the photograph of) Begum Nawazish being (half) naked and I said ‘She’s a boy’ and he said that’s okay and that was the end of the story”, continuing further Tapu said, “in the morning I got a phone call from one of their committee members, who said ‘your picture about Meera needs to be edited and censored, do you have another copy of a different picture? We find that objectionable because her legs are showing’. Initially I was taken aback and I told them ‘I’ll do something; I’ll edit it or crop it or something’.

“When I came, here and saw the picture again and thought ‘this is nothing’ so all of yesterday they debated and I kept fighting my case saying, ‘there is nothing wrong with this. Your school is a liberal school and an art school and it shouldn’t be censoring. Second of all, it’s a commercial gallery, if it’s not in your clause that you will censor the art then you can’t censor this, you shouldn’t’”

In the morning before the exhibition, however, Tapu claims to have gotten an epiphany and, according to him, “I came here (at the gallery) and I told the gentleman who runs the gallery that I’m going to censor it by taking a marker and hiding her legs like they do in film posters and he thought it was a great idea.

I pulled the picture out of the frame, cross-hatched it, I first wrote ‘censored by IVS’, then I decided that would be too nasty, so I cross hatched it completely and hid that away, I showed it to the principal and he was very sorry, very apologetic and suggested that maybe I should put the original? And I said, ‘No, now it’s censored and it’s going to be like this and I’m not going to bother making another one’ hence there is a controversial picture of Meera, which was never controversial to begin with and that’s that” he finished, with a hint of amusement.

The photographers plan to publish a book containing the photographs sometime in the future.

First Published:
The Metropolitan
April 13, 2007