Photography in Peshawar has historically and culturally found itself wedged between the multi-denominational Indian sub-continent and predominantly Muslim Afghanistan; and artistically it is caught between the creative and conservative forces of both. The result is a rich and largely unexplored photographic tradition, variously borne of British rule, the Partition of India, war in neighbouring Afghanistan, the rise of Taliban, local tribal law, a historical prohibition on image-making in Islam, the practice of purdah, and the regional movie industry; a historically infused mixture in which there is a tangible stress between the practice of photography as it is pursued and the culture in which it is lived.

The particular focus of the book Photo Peshawar is on photographers who work in two areas of Peshawar: Saddar Road, the relatively genteel and elite new city area, and Cinema Road, representing a more chowk-like energetic old city culture. There are also references to smaller enclaves which house studios such as those around Randaz Bazaar, close to the ‘ladies’ market — which, as the name implies, sells women’s cosmetics, jewellery and fabrics — and Sikandar Pura.

Smaller establishments on the edge of the old city, including those in Kohat, a garrison town south of Peshawar, also make their way into the narrative of this book. Between them, the photographers who work in these studios hold decades of experience, where expertise with both camera and paintbrush can overlap to stunning visual effect.

Text and images excerpted from Photo Peshawar by Sean Foley and Lukas Birk, published by Mapin Publishing, Ahmedabad, in association with Pix Publishing

Bacha Khan: The Pashtun leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890–1988), also known as ‘Bacha Khan’. Hand-coloured photograph, Famous Studio, c. 1980s–1990s

Studio curtains: Hand-painted backdrop in Daoud’s Welcome Studio on Cinema Road. The blue curtain is for official portraits, while the red and yellow are decorative

It just happens: Picture House Cinema on Cinema Road, photographed a few weeks after a February 2014 grenade attack by religious extremists whichthat left killed five cinema-goers dead. “It was like watching a movie,” said one Cinema Road photographer, adding, “it is real and not real — it just happens.”

Marriage merriment: Women’s celebration at a Pakistani wedding

Nimbus effect: Hand-coloured photograph, Tahir Usman’s Royal Studio, c. 1990s. Customers’ heads were sometimes outlined by a nimbus for added effect

Goat in a goal: Buzkhashi, played by horse-mounted Afghans in the north-east of Pakistan in the 1980s and ’90s, involved depositing a dead goat into the goal post

Published on September 14, 2018