Caption: Protestor collecting money for Palestinian families at an anti-war demo, London, 2004 © Tahir Amin
Please leave your feedback for Tahir Amin in the [comments] section of this post for this image.
Show & Tell: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.
Tahir Amin is a lawyer from the UK currently working with the Alternative Law Forum in Bangalore, India on intellectual property issues and its affect on the public domain. Following his departure from the corporate legal world he has been an activist in the U.K Stop the War Coalition, the International Solidarity Movement as an international peace activist/observer in the West Bank, Palestine and currently working on legal issues for the Affordable Medicine Treatment campaign in India.
Activism/protest or simply disseminating information for a cause can be done in many ways, though usually in the form of writing or actual physical protest. However, Tahir believes the power of visuals through photography are equally relevant forms of activism and protest, as images rarely fail to have at least some impact on the neutral observer. From images of the millions of people protesting in London, to the destruction and conflict in Palestine, to protests against patents and the right to medicine, the camera is not only able to tell a story, but it also acts as an instrument of awareness, protest and activism.
He is currently preparing to carry out photography projects around India, in particular, raising awareness about rural India's intersection of art and activism to empower local artists, a project for an NGO in Bombay working on placing homeless children in schools in order to raise funds, a look into the lives of refugees from Tibet living in one of the largest Tibetan settlements in India, as well as the Tsunami relief effort in the eyes of the dalits in Tamil Nadu. He is also planning to return to Palestine in the future.
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Good Photo.
Can you please tell me why you zoom into Palestine?
I think this is the 2nd one I’ve seen in your wonderful blog.
No offense please, just a question.!
Good Photo.
Can you please tell me why you zoom into Palestine?
I think this is the 2nd one I’ve seen in your wonderful blog.
No offense please, just a question.!
Dear Venkitu,
Thanks for the positive comment and no offence taken at all by your question.
Without going into great length on this blog, my reasons for ‘zooming’ into Palestine relate to my interest in closely following the Arab – Israeli conflict since the beginning of the current intifida in 2000, which as a result led me into delving into its history and working as an activist/volunteer raising awareness on legal issues concerning human rights issues of Palestinians in the Occupied Territorries. As a result of my activist/volunteer work, I spent 4 weeks in various towns in the West Bank, in order to get a better understanding of the issues I was being an activist for. It was during this time that my interest in using photography as a medium for activism and also for reporting purposes started to grow and being in the West Bank was a place where a camera has an important part to play in getting out images which rarely hit the mainstream media. Indeed, the one thing that struck me in Palestine was how the Palestinians would urge those of us with a camera take shots of the carnage, destruction and treatment they encounter under the occupation in order to show the international world what was happening there.
I could write much more, but in a nutshell the above reasons are why I am interested in picturing events concerning Palestine. In the current climate of ‘terrorism’ and the democratisation of the Middle East, the question of Palestine issue is central to all this.
Dear Venkitu,
Thanks for the positive comment and no offence taken at all by your question.
Without going into great length on this blog, my reasons for ‘zooming’ into Palestine relate to my interest in closely following the Arab – Israeli conflict since the beginning of the current intifida in 2000, which as a result led me into delving into its history and working as an activist/volunteer raising awareness on legal issues concerning human rights issues of Palestinians in the Occupied Territorries. As a result of my activist/volunteer work, I spent 4 weeks in various towns in the West Bank, in order to get a better understanding of the issues I was being an activist for. It was during this time that my interest in using photography as a medium for activism and also for reporting purposes started to grow and being in the West Bank was a place where a camera has an important part to play in getting out images which rarely hit the mainstream media. Indeed, the one thing that struck me in Palestine was how the Palestinians would urge those of us with a camera take shots of the carnage, destruction and treatment they encounter under the occupation in order to show the international world what was happening there.
I could write much more, but in a nutshell the above reasons are why I am interested in picturing events concerning Palestine. In the current climate of ‘terrorism’ and the democratisation of the Middle East, the question of Palestine issue is central to all this.