Opening reception Monday, April 12, 5 - 7pm

German photographer Christina Zück (b. 1969) documents street life in Karachi, Pakistan in a series of large analog photographs and digital snapshots. The images do not claim to be objective; rather, Zück recognizes that her perception of Karachi is filtered by her own education and cultural background. She doesn’t deny the limitations of her viewpoint but conversely makes the photographer’s presence felt, reminding the viewer that this is Karachi seen through her, the artist’s, eyes.

The camera for Zück is a learning tool. Aiming the lens at anonymous passers-by, she explores possibilities for understanding. The resulting photographs are empathetic, speaking volumes about her chance encounters. The facial expressions, body postures, and clothes help our minds conjure up stories and personalities for the figures. But our constructions can neither be confirmed nor refuted.

Zück tests the limits of empathy in photography at a time when belief in the possibility of understanding is shaken up. The artist was on a first visit to Karachi in September 2001 where she received news of the terrorist attacks. Back home in Berlin, she learned about Karachi’s role as a “hotbed” of Islamic terrorism. One of the masterminds of September 11 was arrested in 2002 in the same neighborhood in which Zück had stayed during her visit: Defence Phase II. In 2008, she went back to Karachi to explore, like a Baudelairean flâneur, what these changed conditions meant for the people of her host city.

Zück’s photographs do not hide the fact that, in Karachi, life is aggressive. Weapons are visible everywhere; the fear of attacks and assassinations is real. The divide between poor and rich is immense and creates conflicts that go beyond the “war on terror.” Still, during the day, the streets seem peaceful, ordinary life continues, and a photographer’s keen observation is rewarded.

PRESS RELEASE