<p>Contact Sheet 173: 40 Artists / 40 Years marks Light Works 40th Anniversary and is released in conjunction with the exhibition 40 Artists / 40 Years: Selections from the Light Work Collection, featuring Carrie Mae Weems, Cindy Sherman, John Gossage, James Casebere, Jim Goldberg, Dawoud Bey, Fazal Sheikh, and Hank Willis Thomas, to name just a few. Light Work, an artist-run, non-profit organization, has been providing direct support to emerging and under-recognized artists working in the media of photography and digital imaging since 1973. The organization has been led by Jeffrey Hoone since 1982, and the following statement from the exhibition catalogue clarifies his vision and dedication to serving artists.</p>

Contact Sheet 173: 40 Artists / 40 Years

Arts & Photography

Dawoud Bey

Fazal Sheikh

John Gossage

Cindy Sherman

Carrie Mae Weems

VARIOUS

Hank Willis Thomas

Photography & Video

Light Work

Fazal Sheikh: A Camel for the Son

Art Data

The photographer's third and most stunning collection. A splendid production: Two-volume set. Rich black pictorial cloth boards with red titles on spine. Several hundred copies of the two books, which are intended by the photographer to be sold together despite the genuine difference in tone of each volume, were distributed to Dutch parliamentarians, judges, mayors and the media in an effort to create a policy more sympathetic to all asylum-seekers, who flee their countries in pursuit of safety. "Ramadan Moon" is a timeless and poetic evocation of one woman's plight: It draws together passages from the Koran about the holy month of Ramadan with Seynab, the protagonist, and her memories of Mogadishu before the war, the story of her flight to the Netherlands in search of asylum and the history of the Dutch treatment of Somali asylum seekers. "A Camel for the Son" is classic photojournalism and stems from Fazal Sheikh's decade-long engagement with the Somali refugee communities living in Kenya's northeastern desert. It follows the refugees from their arrival in Kenya during the outbreak of civil war in 1991 to the present, measuring the cost of war as witnessed by a generation of children raised in exile. Fazal Sheikh bridges the gap between the First World and the Third World, fostering a greater awareness and understanding that honors the Somali women as individuals who assert themselves and persevere in the face of great obstacles. The images and testimonials urge us not to forget that these people exist, even as world attention shifts away from their plight. These are simply beautiful photographs that will move even the most cynical nihilist. Fazal Sheikh's unique contribution to "concerned photography" is his insistence that each so-called refugee be treated as a specific individual if we are to understand his or her suffering in all its enormity. Hence the importance of "Ramadan Moon/ A Camel for the Son" in his continuing quest.

Ramadan Moon

<p>For New York-born photographer-activist Fazal Sheikh, the portrait is an important tool. For more than two decades, as he has worked in different communities around the world, the invitation to sit for a portrait has been one of the principle means by which he has established a link with his subjects and been allowed to enter and document their lives. This volume contains the full range of Sheikh's work, from his earliest portraits taken in African refugee camps, through long-term projects in Afghanistan, Northern Pakistan, Somalia and Kenya, to more recent work in South America and India. Many of his subjects have been displaced from their homes or their countries, and their lives have been lived under the threat of violence, poverty and discrimination. With a text by writer and theorist Eduardo Cadava, this book tackles difficult issues, raising the moral dilemma of documenting the lives of disadvantaged people within the context of contemporary art.</p>

Fazal Sheikh: Portraits

Steidl Photography International

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Books by Fazal Sheikh