Visual artist captures broader picture of South Asian, Muslim immigrant communities

First publishedJul 17, 11:00 UTC

Last updatedJul 17, 13:47 UTC · 10m ago

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Chicago Sun-Times6Visual artist captures broader picture of South Asian, Muslim immigrant communitiesJul 17, 11:00 UTCOpen ↗

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<p>Most of the people in the pictures seemed amenable to being photographed. Or they pretended to be.</p><p>Motionless for minutes, they stared vacantly at their camera-wielding predators, likely unaware the images would be used to justify <a class="Link" href="https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/digital-archives-teaching-indian-colonial-history-through-photographs-teaching-resource-essay/" target="_blank" >colonial subjugation</a> and spread imperial propaganda.</p><p>Some wary Indians <a class="Link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/mar/19/british-empire-photography-to-control-india-colonialism" target="_blank" >rebelled</a> by refusing to pose as instructed, showing up late or skipping entirely the mid-19th and early 20th century photo sessions orchestrated by the British.</p><p>But even some maharajas donning diamond-encrusted turbans were as powerless as the dhoti- and sari-clad working class to fully subvert the <a class="Link" href="https://www.ashmolean.org/exhibition/colonial-views-of-india-impey-photographs" target="_blank" >patronizing Western gaze</a>. </p><div class="RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement" data-module data-align-center><a class="AnchorLink" id="module-570000" name="module-570000"></a> <div class="RichTextSidebarModule-title">Columnists bug</div> <div class="RichTextModule-items RichTextBody"><h2>Columnists</h2><br><i>In-depth political coverage, sports analysis, entertainment reviews and cultural commentary.</i><br></div> </div><p>To give these long-gone photo subjects the agency they were denied, Pakistan-born visual artist <a class="Link" href="https://www.lalikhalid.com/" target="_blank" >Mehreen “Lali” Khalid</a> turned the camera on herself as a form of collective retribution.</p><p>Serving as a "surrogate," Khalid "reclaimed consent and control" by using the same albumen glass plate and silver gelatin print photographic processes that reduced countless pre-Partition South Asians to one-dimensional, "exoticized" specimens.</p><p>The defiant self-portraits, which Khalid snapped in January on the same walk she took for 12 days by the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina, are now on <a class="Link" href="https://www.mocp.org/events/diane-dammeyer-fellowship-exhibition-lali-khalid/" target="_blank" >display</a> at Columbia College Chicago’s Glass Curtain Gallery, 1104 S. Wabash Ave.</p><div class="Enhancement" data-align-floatRight> <div class="Enhancement-item" data-crop=""> <figure class="Figure"><a class="AnchorLink" id="image-f30000" name="image-f30000"></a> <picture data-crop="medium"> <source type="image/webp" width="490" height="275" data-srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/d8ad163/2147483647/strip/true/crop/906x508+0+386/resize/490x275!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fb8%2Fe6%2F5794e4594eaf9e93cfc67aa0f6f7%2F08.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a0a9849/2147483647/strip/true/crop/906x508+0+386/resize/980x550!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fb8%2Fe6%2F5794e4594eaf9e93cfc67aa0f6f7%2F08.jpg 2x" data-lazy-load="true" srcset="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" /> <source width="490" height="275" data-srcset="https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a4526be/2147483647/strip/true/crop/906x508+0+386/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fb8%2Fe6%2F5794e4594eaf9e93cfc67aa0f6f7%2F08.jpg" data-lazy-load="true" srcset="data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=" /> <img class="Image" alt="A woman with dark hair and a puffy coat is looking at the camera.

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  Visual artist captures broader picture of South Asian, Muslim immigrant communities

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  Chicago Sun-TimesJul 17, 11:00

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