A STILL     ON A LAND IN MOTION …

“Qatar is on the move, making giant strides towards the future. Its present is already a part of the future. Life has become a vortex.

Through my photographs, I invite you to reappraise the presence of the past. My work questions the traces left by history, casting fresh light on ancient origins while simultaneously examining contemporary life.

Today, the technological advances in the field of photography have grown by leaps and bounds. Cameras today produce beautiful, high-resolution images, automatic settings, high-speed shutter settings, etc. Even post-processing has improved immensely, thanks to computers and Photoshop. You can see your picture immediately, so you have the option to delete it or to keep it, an option not available with earlier film cameras. Because of this, everyone can now be a photographer. In fact, it’s almost like spoon-feeding. The question is, ‘Where is the challenge in that?’

I have selected ‘Lomography’ cameras to accompany me on this fluctuating journey of the past. The past, evoking dreams, imagination and romance, is captured with this modest lomography camera, characterised by all the “faults” that today’s cameras do their best to overcome: lack of focus, poor exposure, inaccurate colours, etc.. Although this camera provides few options in terms of aperture, it does offer users a considerable amount of leeway in terms of exposure times. Furthermore, the film is manually advanced, frame by frame. Such features provide an opportunity to explore possibilities that lie beyond the scope of current cameras. The image becomes archaeological, an approach recalling the effects achieved by pioneering 19th century photographers or certain painters. ” MA

A Lomography Photo Exhibition by Maher Attar from March 10 until May 28, 2013 at ANIMA Gallery, 30 La Croisette – Porto Arabia – The Pearl – Qatar

Photos by AR Al-Baker