Pakistan's Minibuses

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Pakistan | Tuesday, November 8, 2011 | 4 photos

The place I chose to shoot was a mechanical shop in my city, Karachi, where the local minibuses (which actually look like colorful giants) come to rest and be fixed up. The rest of the world may have come to regard Pakistan as nothing more than a terrorist state, but I wanted to represent the culture of Pakistan through my images and nothing speaks louder than these buses with their bright storytelling imagery, mirrors and flying pompoms, which are like a splash of color on our streets. My photographs attempt to show these buses in their environment and the reverent way the drivers look after their buses like their own babies.

Over the course of time, I have discovered there are few things that I am passionate about. Fortunately, travel photography is one of them. Unfortunately, as one of my photography teachers told me a few years ago, there has never been a photographer from Pakistan who has worked for the National Geographic. That fact may not be accurate but that moment was a defining point for me because that is when I became determined to be the first National Geographic photographer from Pakistan. Opportunities like this are rare in my country and to have a chance to receive this scholarship would literally be that once in a lifetime break that I’ve been waiting for. I’m sure the images I have submitted are not perfect. But that’s what I hope to gain from this scholarship: to learn from the best how to shoot photographs that are perfect. I am not scared of hard work, sleepless nights or long days as I know what I will be reaping in the end will be worth so much more as I love meeting new people and learning about different places and cultures.