Fazal Sheikh

Fazal Sheikh is an artist who is known for his portrait photography of people who are displaced or live in marginalized communities. In his work, Sheikh attempts to provide a better understanding of his subjects for his viewers. He was born in 1965 in New York City, and after attending Princeton, he began his career of photography. His projects of taken all over Africa and throughout the Middle East.

I chose these three photos because they were all portraits of some type, as the portraits were by far my favorite and the most impacting part of the collection. I chose the first photo because it presented a portrait in a very unconventional way, and I chose the succeeding two because of the emotion which they incite in the viewer.

The guided meditation was very beneficial to my understanding of and connection of the photo, which was the middle of the three included above. As it went on, I began noticing more and more details in the photo which I had not noticed previously. While I could not empathise with the subject and her feelings, the exercise made me feel as if I had a greater understanding of the situation and its circumstances.