Photographer Mimo Khair is an Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the ‘Between Places’ series. To see Mimo’s body of work, click on any photograph.
These photographs were made over years of traveling through Asia, the Middle East and Europe, from the streets of Shanghai and Yangon to the quiet waters of Inle Lake, the architecture of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman, and a rainy day in Venice.
They were never intended to become a single series. Yet looking back, I see a thread connecting them. I am drawn to moments when a person, a gesture, a reflection or a particular quality of light changes the way I see a place.
Travel for me has never been about collecting destinations. It is about walking, observing and allowing myself to become part of the rhythm of somewhere unfamiliar. Sometimes I am drawn to a face or an encounter. At other times, a solitary figure moving through a vast architectural space, or a reflection appearing for only a few seconds, becomes the story.
Across very different cultures and landscapes, I keep searching for these small moments of connection. They remind me that beneath all the differences of geography, language and culture, there is something familiar in the way we move through the world.
Artist Statement Photography has been my way of experiencing the world for more than three decades. I am interested in people and in the environments, they inhabit, but most of all I am interested in the moments when something makes me stop. It can be a face, a gesture, a shadow, a reflection, the movement of a person through a landscape, or simply the way light transforms an ordinary scene. Much of my work begins by walking. I rarely know exactly what I am looking for. I prefer to enter a place with curiosity and allow the photographs to reveal themselves. The camera gives me a reason to look more closely, to approach people I might otherwise never meet, and to pay attention to moments that could easily disappear unnoticed. Having lived in Lebanon, New York, Shanghai and Germany, and having traveled extensively throughout my life, I have often found myself moving between cultures. Perhaps because of this, I am less interested in what separates one place from another than in the connections I find between them. My photography moves between street photography, documentary work and fine art, sometimes in black and white and sometimes in color. I don't feel the need to separate these approaches. The choice is led by the place, the light and what I feel in the moment. At the heart of my work is a fascination with our shared humanity. Photography allows me to enter someone else's world for a fraction of a second and, sometimes, to recognize something of myself there. The photograph becomes a memory of that encounter, but also an invitation for someone else to stop, look and perhaps feel that connection too.
All images and text © Mimo Khair
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I love this quote, “They remind me that beneath all the differences of geography, language and culture, there is something familiar in the way we move through the world.” It reminds me of one of my blogging goals: UNITY! At the heart of it all, we are ONE!
Stunning . . . I love how these photos are linked by moments of connection between you as a traveler and the culture you are within. These moments are everything . . . and its so important for us to share them in a world so full of intolerance and xenophobia.