Common Ground: Photographs by Fazal Sheikh, 1989 – 2013

Human rights and dignity form the core of Fazal Sheikh’s photographs. For more than 25 years, he has worked with individuals rendered invisible by war, ethnic and religious strife, climate crises, and social banishment, inviting them to share their stories of unimaginable hardship and perseverance. Featuring works from eight of his series, Common Ground demonstrates Sheikh’s sustained attention to the displaced around the world, and his drive to amplify the voices of the marginalized through his documentary-based photographic practice.

Two series included in Common Ground merge documentary and conceptual photographic practice: Ether, the artist’s first series of color photographs, honors the states of sleep and death as in the sacred city of Banares, on the banks of the Ganges River, where many Hindus go to die in the hopes of achieving salvation. Ramadan Moon, featuring a soundtrack of sung prayers, is an immersive work that follows Somali refugee Seynab Azir Wardeere during the holy month of Ramadan. Seeking asylum in the Netherlands, she looks to the night sky in the hopes that the family she left behind in Somalia look at the same stars during their separation.

Sheikh’s photographic series have earned him numerous awards and fellowships, including a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Henri Cartier-Bresson International Grand Prize and the Luce Humanitarian Award, among many others. To extend the spirit of his work to the Portland metro area, the museum is working with leaders in the community on special programming that will engage the local resettled population and examine the wide-ranging experiences of displaced individuals from around the globe.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

Image: Fazal Sheikh, Abshiro Aden Mohammed, Women’s Leader, Somali Refugee Camp, Dagahaley, Kenya, 2000, from the series A Camel for the Son. © Fazal Sheikh