Safar Dar Watan (Journeys Within Native Country)

This portfolio explores and shares a very personal and a visibly beautiful journey taken between the cities of Karachi and Lahore in Pakistan. Traveling by train in your home country there is a warmth in the distances traveled, since you may be far from the day to day routine sights and sounds but it still feels like home. The feeling of being in between destinations has less tension and more joyful getting in touch with a love for one's motherland. The images are not meant to be a photojournalist as they unveil and reveal themselves but rather the images flow as imaginative, and loaded with emotion, concept and storytelling leading you to illustrate a story, out for yourself. Although the images where shot as straight images and all I am really doing is using my fine art freedom of expression, by adding textures, varied tonalities as I try to create a natural flow to them. You will hopefully feel a close-proximity to the people from different walks of life at the train station, the city suburbs, and quaint little villages, railway crossings. A multitude of rational ethnicities coming together, getting along and moving on with their lives. For myself I have always felt a surge of emotions when thoughts of Pakistan run through my mind … what we are and what we could be collectively as a nation. Open your hidden eyes and return to the root of the root of your own self. ~ Hz. Maulana Jalal-ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (r.a)