Photography is a political medium wherein Social Documentary photography literally plays a part in framing the ongoing political discourse of our world. It is used to represent, expose, engage, disrupt and cause us to question what it is we know about the world.

As a consumer of mainstream media it is difficult not to see the world, at times, through a very narrow Orientalist aperture in which a superior, advanced, caring West is pitted against a backward, chaotic, dangerous and sometimes exotic ‘other’. Seemingly, the views of colonialists, missionaries and intrepid adventures continue to be perpetuated.

The photo series Prayer – An Act of Peace (part 1) and Hands Off – Out Now (part 2) seek to engage the viewer in order to present another perspective on our post-modern and pluralist society.

Prayer – an Act of Peace (part 1)

What springs to mind if you are asked to visualise the opposite of war? What is one of the most peaceful actions a person could be carrying out? The answer that seemed most obvious to me was praying.

Many Muslims pray five times a day. A clean area is required and this is why a prayer rug is often used. Ten Muslims have been photographed with their prayer rugs and speak about prayer and explain its importance to them.

Rather than photographic a person inn prayer, an image that could have nee seen as cliché and repetitive, I chose to photograph ten people holding their prayer rugs in order to engage the viewer and connect them to the thoughts of each person photographed.

Hands Off – Out Now (part 2)

‘Muslim’, ‘feminist’ and ‘political activist’ – Hands Off – Out Now seeks to question and go beyond expedient and overused stereotypes of Muslim women found in mainstream Australian media. This personal account of Salem El-Merebi, a Muslim, feminist (or in her words, ‘womanist’) and political activist allows the viewer to participate in her world for a moment in time.