Aamir Muneer Photography

Franco Fontana is an Italian photographer specializing in abstract landscape and architectural photography. He uses different colour palettes to create surrealist images that catch the eye. In addition to this, his use of strong contrasts and the photographic line create unique works unlike the work of most photographers. He uses these camera and staging techniques to turn landscapes that would otherwise be mundane to photograph into bright and lively pieces. I feel it is quite impressive that Fontana is able to capture purely realistic landscapes and turn them into images comparable to that of the great abstract painters of the 20th century. His work is often compared to that of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, both of whom used a singular color palette and simple composition in each work to leave interpretation up to the viewer. Along with his surrealist work, Fontana also captured images involving the interplay between shadows and urban landscapes. These explore the relationship between a sprawling urban area, and the individuality of people. In another series called Asphalt, Fontana uses images of the various old and new signs painted on the road to allude to the idea that the world is ever changing, and as one thing may decay, another may be repaired. Lastly, I found interesting that along with his artistic works, Fontana also used his talents in commercial photography for several fashion and car brands, along with publications like Vogue and The New York Times.

Being Muslim in America

Being Muslim in America is a photojounalistic project where I intend to interview a range of age groups on their experiences as a muslim in a society that is often seen as actively hostile towards them. Each interview will be coupled with one or more portraits, capturing the personality and emotions of the subject. The questions will be both general, applying to all participants, and focused, directed and formulated for the unique perspectives of specific subjects. Each interview will be a recorded conversation with no previous preparation and then transcribed to text. Only quotes particularly striking and important to the overall theme will be selected and placed under each image. Each group interviewed will provide a different perspective on the muslim experience, whether that be innocence, experience, or perspective.

I think photojournalism is a particular important form of photography in society because it uses visuals to aid in understanding a person’s emotions and feelings. Being able to see the events unfolding allows the targeted audience to properly sympathize with the subject. Using photos to describe the experience of people gives a certain depth of understanding that is impossible with text alone.

 

Artist Inspiration

Brandon Stanton created a photoblog called Humans of New York in which he captures people’s emotions and stories through a portrait along with a short piece of writing describing an event they’ve gone through.

Azaam

How has it been as a muslim in America?

It hasn’t really been bad at all. Yeah it’s been pretty good.

Do people at school talk about religion at school or maybe look at you differently because you’re muslim?

No not really, we mostly just talk about funny stuff or cool things we see. The only time I talked about it was when I did a project on my heritage

What do you think about the President of the United States?

I don’t like him at all because he’s weird and makes bad decisions.

Do you think he has anything against muslims?

No, no I don’t think so

 

Farhan

What’s it been like being muslim in America

I don’t know. I’m fine I guess

Do people talk about religion or anything like that at school?

No not at all. We don’t really talk about that stuff

What do you think about the President?

I don’t like him because he doesn’t like muslims at all. Like he doesn’t let people come to America and says they’re bad people.

Have muslims done any bad things in America

Only like a few bad people do bad things, but that doesn’t mean all muslims are bad. Just those people who did it are bad

Imaan

If you were to go back to when your were 10 or 11, do you have any distinct memories of anything bad happening to you because you were muslim

Yeah my mom and I were at the mall when I was around 10 and there was this group of guys maybe in their early 20s and they yelled at us from across the store calling us terrorists and other stuff.

So at 10 did you know what was going on and how society saw muslims?

Yeah i started to become aware of it around then, but it was still really jarring and shocking because I didn’t expect something like that to happen to me

Do you think that this has become a bigger issue in the past few years especially with a president who vocalizes his feelings about the issue?

For sure. It’s definitely been a problem for a while but it’s definitely gotten worse over the past few years just because I feel like people aren’t as afraid to be openly racist or horrible in general.

Ridwan

Having moved around to a lot of places, how does America compare as a society?

So, in Nigeria, people usually stay with their religious communities, so because I was muslim I was surrounded by muslims all the time. But in America everyone is different and diverse. It initially confused me when I came to the states, but having all these different people gives me a better perspective on my own identity.

Do you think that outside of the people you know, America has a more hostile society compared to the other places you’ve lived?

Yeah definitely more hostile, just because people view me and my people as bad or dangerous, and the media kinda teaches society that we’re terrorists, but that’s simply not true. You can’t make the claim that everyone is bad just based on a few hundred or a few thousand.

Haaris

Being born before 9/11, how has society’s view on muslims changed before and after in your experience?

Yeah, thankfully I was shielded from a lot of that. I feel like there wasn’t too much bigotry, but that could be because I was lucky enough to go to a progressive and open minded school. I definitely got some terrorist jokes from friends growing up, but it was never in a hostile way it was all in good fun. I definitely felt some sense of fear for some family members especially those who were wearing hijabs. 

In the last 2 or 3 years, have you noticed any shift in behavior of American people towards you as a muslim?

Yeah I mean there’s definitely been an ugly underbelly of America for a while of  people who had racist thoughts and just seeing someone who’s like them in power has just emboldened the racists of society to be more vocal.

Google Drive Folder

Google Drive Folder