NOTE: This interview was conducted in the wake of the Coronavirus lockdown in 2020/21. Soon after, with the chaos and uncertainty prompted by the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, PSA held the posting of Fatimah Hossaini’s interview and other pages until we were assured of her safety. The first three Questions & Answers were added in the spring of 2023.
1a. Where are you currently based?
I am currently living and working in Paris, France.
2a. What are you currently working on?
I am resident at one of the best art residencies in Paris, Cite internationale des arts. I just finished the last five photos of women portraits for my ‘beauty amid war’ photo project and I exhibited it in Paris. I have some other projects on being far from home and the concept of exile. I have published my photo book with a French publisher and it also will be published in Italy very soon. I have started another project about women, but quite far from the Afghanistan concept and in the Silk Road and Mena region, which will cover the lives of women in more than ten countries on this road and north Africa.
3a. How has your transition from Afghanistan been?
It was a very sad story and a tragedy in my life that I still can’t deal with, as I fight and suffer from the trauma of leaving my home of Afghanistan.
I had a flight scheduled for the 15th of August 2021 to Istanbul and then the U.S. for my exhibition in NYC, but right on day of my flight was the darkest day of my life and I was very surprised and so heartbroken by the tragedy that happened when the Taliban took over the capital of Kabul city. I got stuck in Kabul.
I was in the military side of Kabul airport. I was on the list of evacuation for about five countries, but I ended up in France when I got stuck in a U.S. line and I saw the last French troops passing the way, when I screamed at the artist they came back and took me to the French shelter.
I will never forget those dark days and the tragedy that can happen to a country where its people are so desperate to leave their home like that – as the eyes of the entire world look on.
1. What is your earliest memory of how or what attracted you to photography?
My earliest memory is of going to exhibitions. I also used to paint when I was a teenager and I tried to paint the photos that I used to take. Perhaps, those images attracted me at the time, and exhibitions and books interested me so much that I was inspired to pursue a career as a professional photographer and artist.
2. What was your experience studying photography at the University of Tehran? How has this education informed your practice?
After completing a bachelor’s in industrial engineering, I decided to do a bachelor’s degree in photography at the University of Tehran. This period was full of wonderful experiences. I learned so much every day at the university. I had never actually thought that I would study art at an academic level and photography was initially just a passion. However, studying art at university was totally different from what I had imagined it to be. It was absolutely fantastic to analyze art from different perspectives and share an artistic environment with students who mostly have common goals. It helped the artist in me grow, enhanced my practice and took it in a certain direction.
3. If you were to design a photo program for young Afghani photographers, what would it look like?
There is a lack of educational facilities in Afghanistan and the young generation has so many problems with the first steps of production in photography. I would like to design an art summit or workshops for women to have different courses and experience it practically.
4. Who or what has inspired you to pursue photography and/or continues to do so?
There are so many things that inspire me to continue working as an artist and photographer — my family, my culture, my challenges as an Afghan artist and photographer. All of these inspire me to become a better version of myself in art and photography. There also are many things that I want to show to the world through my photographic journey, to show another face of my motherland and to show all the beauty that exists in the middle of war and in spite of the war.
5. Is there a book, exhibition or body of work that has really impressed you and maybe influenced your work / life?
There are many books and exhibitions and artists that have influenced my works, but the important ones are: Reza Deghati’s book War and Peace; Shirin Neshat, an Iranian photographer’s exhibition I will greet the Sun again in Los Angeles impressed me and continues to inspire me.
6. What draws / drew you to the subject matter you are pursuing in your current work?
The three most important issues that I address in my works are identity, gender, and migration. And I address these issues as I myself have always been challenged by the same — being born as a refugee, growing up with identity issues in my host country, and being judged by people because of my gender. So, it all stems mostly from the challenges I have had to face so far. However, all this is backed up by research and analysis.
7. Tell us about your interest in the staged genre of photography.
I used to paint as a fourteen year old and I just loved colors. This perhaps could be the reason that I like to use colors in my photographs, as this also sometimes helps me to come away from reality. I like to direct, and it is important for me to bring something new into my frame. Perhaps it’s also because my country has always been recognized as a war zone and is most often seen as black and white images. I like to bring colors into my frames and make them brighter and colorful.
8. Was it a conscious decision to not become a photojournalist?
Honestly speaking, I always wanted to be an artist so that I could create new content and capture the hopes and beauties of my people; to be the crazy one and have the freedom to create what I want.
As an artist living in Kabul, I have always admired photojournalists who are putting their lives at risk and working in an active war zone. I have done some photo reports as a photojournalist, however I like to direct and to capture something more than reality in my images.
To stay away from photojournalism was absolutely a conscious decision, not only based on my interests, but also because it is not easy to be a woman photojournalist in the middle east, and especially in Afghanistan.
9. You founded the organization Mastooraat. What are some of the activities in which the organization is involved?
Mastooraat is a Kabul-based nonprofit organization that my friend, Sharif Safi, and I established in 2019, through which we work for Art, Women, Youth, and Peace.
It is essentially a group of artists, peacebuilders, and volunteers motivated by the desire to empower women and youth and foster both appreciation and creation of art. Mastooraat operates within its two major hubs — (a) Youth and Peacebuilding (b) Art. Under its Youth and Peacebuilding Hub, Mastooraat organizes youth debate trainings, debate rounds, dialogs, and forums as theories of change and for social development. Under its Art Hub, Mastooraat aims to pave the way for social transformation and behavioral change, social and religious tolerance, respecting women’s rights, social cohesion, and cultural diversity through employing the soft power of art as a non-intrusive approach.
Mastooraat is a home for local artists, performers, and exhibitors to showcase their work. We organize and curate exhibitions, deliver workshops and lectures, and provide educational opportunities in art. So far, Mastooraat has organized several photo exhibitions in Kabul, Beijing, and Tehran.
10. Would you tell us about United by Art and Fashion, your latest collaborative project with other Afghan women artists?
In my United by Art and Fashion initiative, we, – the women of Afghanistan – have come together to bring art to our motherland, with the stones and gems of luxury from our mountains and our Geleems woven from the furs of our sheep. It was a collaboration between Afghan women artists to have some hopeful photographs taken during the lockdown and through all those tough times when we had come together – the Laman fashion house with #Lamask campaign and traditional designs, Afghan models with their beautiful faces, and I took their photos.
11. Do your projects typically run in parallel, or do you focus on one project at a time?
Most of the photography assignments run in parallel, however, when it comes to my personal projects, I focus on one project at a time over long periods, as arriving at the final result requires more work and research. There are breaks as well between the bodies of work, because I need to realize everything, finalizing the titles and the statements of my photo collections. I try to use the breaks for research, reading, and sometimes traveling.
12. How do you measure success or that a body of work is going well?
When a work is getting closer to its end, I sometimes try to get my professors’ or some of my favorite artists’ opinions and thoughts on my works. When the project gets closer to the result that I have in my mind, it is definitely satisfying for me. The work then is published, which means getting feedback and comments from the audience. That can have an effect on the success of the body of the works, as well.
13. How much effort do you put into getting your work shown? Is this important to you? Does showing your work feed your creative process, or does it distract you from it?
In my opinion it is very important for artists to show their works, as it is an important part of the process. It is not only about producing the work, but also about exhibiting it. By exhibiting it, I mean the way the artists present and show their works is equally important.
I love the way my work has been exhibited in different galleries in various countries; it has helped me expand my social network in art and meet with different artists, gallery holders, and collectors. This exposure can change the way artists work, one can use the platform to talk about works and the importance of the artist statement, talk about your thoughts and challenges as an artist and how you bring all this into an artwork on the wall.
Magazines, books, media, and museums all play important roles in presenting artists’ artworks.
14. Do you feel that there are adequate opportunities and avenues to share / show your work in your home country, or do you always look for such opportunities abroad?
Unfortunately, besides a place or two, we don’t have any great, possible, and secure platforms for presenting artworks in Afghanistan. Due to consecutive wars and years of conflict in Afghanistan, we lack cultural places and it’s hard to find any platform for presenting our works.
I had a good and professional platform in Iran to show and to present my works, as Iran has many galleries and museums. However, now I always look for galleries abroad to show my works in a professional way and to show another face of Afghanistan.
15. Fine art or documentary photography often are not lucrative enough to provide a living. Some do commercial work, others teach. Are there other photography related areas that you have found to supplement your living? Some that you would recommend aspiring photographers to consider?
Honestly, it is not always easy for artists to make money by their works, but when they find a way, no one can stop them. I also teach and do some photography assignments as a freelancer and sell my works through my exhibitions and websites to make a living. My suggestion to other artists is that they can also consider teaching and freelancing as a way of making a living besides pursuing their artistic life.
16. Do you think there is a universal language that photography uses? Do you think that Afghan photographers are finding that they are judged by western criteria and standards?
Everyone sees pictures everywhere, no matter where you are in the world. Because it can speak to all people from all over the world, photography is often called, a universal language.
With regard to being judged, the world is aware that there are many active international and famous photo and news agencies in Afghanistan that set a high standard for images. So, in that context, photographers here have tried to deliver what those agencies want. This can mostly be true about news photography, however, not much has been done in other genres of photography in Afghanistan.
17. With your years of experience, of the lessons you have learned, what is the one thing you wish someone had told you when you were starting out?
I wish I could have known sooner that everything is not about one’s family’s wishes or society’s standards and clichés. Our society needs more artists than engineers and doctors, as an artist can change many peoples’ minds with an artwork, or give them hope, love, or even fear. No one can make a better decision for you but yourself. Follow your intuition.
I wish I had realized that I was an artist inside when I was younger, and that I had started photography or worked on my artistic career in high school or even sooner, and not only after doing a bachelor’s in engineering with so much confusion.
18. How has it been living through this lockdown period for you, in terms of your practice and /or producing work?
The lockdown period was a very tough time for me, as I lost many opportunities, important exhibitions, conferences, and exciting trips. Instead, I got stuck in Kabul, Afghanistan. I am used to traveling and meeting people all the time, and I couldn’t imagine how I would stay home and do nothing – actually, I didn’t have the art to do nothing! But I tried to stay productive. I photographed some other collections. I tried to read more. I wrote some articles and did some research. I also worked on the concept of my next photo book. Throughout all of this, I was trying to keep the balance and deal with the situation.
19. If you didn’t do photography, what other career might you have pursued?
I’m sure it would have been in the arts, perhaps another form of visual art – maybe a painter, a filmmaker, or even an architect, perhaps.
20. How would an interested collector go about buying your work?
They can get in touch with me directly through my website.
Fatimah’s Portfolio & Statement
Copyright © 2023, PhotoSouthAsia. All Rights Reserved.
Photograph © Fatimah Hossaini
20 November
