Artists / Writers:

Tariq Khalil

PLACES WERE HOME: A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY TO INDIA & PAKISTAN

This exhibition is taken from a journey exploring migration through a study of an overlooked environment common to India and Pakistan. The locations of this work were former and current areas familiar to my family in northern India and corresponding sites in central Pakistan. I searched for my extended family¹s homes in Hariyana northern India and compared the fate of dwellings in Pakistan. I have used one family story as a basis for showing the wider consequences of forced migration.

These two pieces are from a collection of 12 which are a meditation on the effects of forced reciprocal migration between these countries; a study of sad beauty within the residues of built environments 60th years after the creation of modern India & Pakistan.

A legacy lingers on across borders and what survives within the built environment has been the basis of my photographs. I have at times used a view camera to interpret this historical event; by altering focus and perspective I have found a means of reflecting the imperfections of individual and group memory.

All pieces have been produced in warmtone fibre paper and hand printed in London by Klaus Klade.

077666 95808
www.tariq.khalil.com

 

 My father’s original village: Mosque abandoned in 1947 now squatted by destitute families, Saha Village, Ambala Hariyana, North India

 My father’s resettled village: Site of disputed origins; a former Serai or a colonial administration building which was converted to a religious school post 1947 then later abandoned, Kot Samaba Village, South Punjab Pakistan

 
Map of Migration 1947

 Locations in India & Pakistan


(click image to view detail).

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