Family Tree
A Photograph by Hashim Nasr, in Collaboration with Through The Lens Collective.
One question is whether the hand rests on the ground or against a wall. If it is the latter, then the photographer has managed a startling feat of balance in his ability to make a picture of things in free fall. Yet this seems improbable. In every likelihood a polygon of light has formed at a corner of the room, so perfect in its serendipity it seems like an opening to show small, precious photographs.
— Emmanuel Iduma
“Photography is an attempt to create a parallel and imaginary world for the viewer of the image.”
This photograph was taken in June 2022 in Khartoum. I love to express my emotions and ideas with photographs of hands. I worked with my cell phone, and like most of my photographs, it was shot in front of a white wall or background.
I wanted to embody my family, which for me is the center of African culture and society. In the photograph I am holding portraits of myself at the age of six (1996), of my grandfather when he was serving in the police (early fifties), and of my grandmother, dad and two uncles when they came to settle in Sudan in 1967. Around that time many families had to move to Sudan.
As a self-taught photographer, photography is an attempt to create a parallel and imaginary world for the viewer of the image, to escape from experiencing reality in one way or another. This would lead me to my approach to photography, which has always been to work with minimal artworks, particularly photographing hands and creating conceptual, editorial portraits with an avant-garde take to them. I am trying to find a link between those two directions of photography.
— Hashim Nasr
Post-Card Africa
Tender Photo is collaborating with Through The Lens Collective to present photographs from Post-Card Africa, a project designed to create new and insightful responses to the history of African representation through photography. Images such as Hashim Nasr’s “Family Tree,” taken in Khartoum, Sudan, evoke a new local archive, by approaching creative agency and shared opportunity for local representation as an important framework for actively engaging the continent’s very complex history and representation. Read more about the project here.
About Hashim Nasr
Hashim Nasr is a Khartoum-born, self-taught photographer known for his multidisciplinary practice incorporating various mediums in his artworks including mirrors, flowers, fabric materials and other daily domestic objects. See more of his work on Instagram and Artsy.
Last Week — Kalenga Nkonge
I took this photo at home in Lusaka as the kids got into the car. This was just after 6 am in the morning. I had decided to start documenting what the morning looked like for me and the kids as I took them to school. The two boys always sat in the backseat but my daughter sat in the front. Here she had just gotten in the car and was looking out the window. I took the shot.
Read More: Looking Into the Morning
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This is the 61st edition of this publication.
The newsletter can also read on web (best for viewing images), and via the Substack iOS/Android apps. Every Wednesday I feature one photograph and the photographer who took it: you’d read a short caption from me, and a statement from the photographer. And every Saturday I publish a lengthier engagement with photography. My goal is to support early to mid-career African photographers by engaging with their work, and to create a platform in which photographers lead the cataloguing and criticism of their work. If this newsletter was shared with you, consider subscribing, or forward to a friend. Please whitelist the newsletter to ensure you never miss it.