In response to her gallery showing at Conley Art:
Having not meet her or known much about the artist before viewing the show, I was struck by the quite nature of the photos. Photos that invoked a since of vivid movement, but also a pattern of the hellish circumstances the Afghan women live under. It was not until I was walking away from the gallery that I realized what Farzana was showing. The pattern of “self immolation”– as she refers to it– at the start we are confronted with the older generation, clad in their burkas, going through life, then the viewer is confronted with the grotesque scars that these woman hide, finally we are shown the younger generation of girls. Whom are shown in a way that seem like they will succeed in breaking from the traditional roles. The “Woman police officer” and the woman “saying good by to her friend at an airport” in particular stuck with me. They appear as evidence for a more hopeful future. The images and video of the collective of photographers Farzana has established called the Afghanistan Photographers Association is another way Farzana is using her art and knowledge to promote promoting the expansion of education and art. Through her photos she is challenging what society has dictated for the woman of Afghanistan and showing the world what life is like through her eyes.
In response to her portfolio review for Art 133 Fall 2017
Her style of capturing simple moments, becomes more evident after having meet Farzana. Quite, refrained, contemplative, patient… all these come to mind. Things that seem to show in her photographs as well. In witnessing her critique on the groups photos she had a willingness to “want” to understand, rather then merely passing up the opportunity to. Farzana would make connections between unrelated works and offer in site on how to unify those together. On my own work, she challenged my exclusion of certain photographs in my series weight. Most interestingly, was her response to my classroom documentary series. Her insight into the amount of time I spent working on the project actually made me realize how much time went into it. I had not before, considered the time frame of my completing the the project. Some confidence was also given in my most recent project involving cyanotypes.
I was pleasantly surprised by the way the review went, and enjoyed speaking and listening to Farzana.