Zainab’s practice reckons with her experiences of growing up in Kashmir – one of the most densely militarised zones in the world—where civil uprisings are often met with state violence leading to killings and mass arrests. Her photographs carry with them the everyday feelings of suffocation and anxiety in a place where both identity and existence are threatened by a colonising power.
In the aftermath of 2019 when the Indian government abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, which held out symbolic autonomy to the residents of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the threat of demographic change loomed over people. Its intent was to crush dissent. The abrogation was followed by a military siege and a prolonged communications black-out, eliminating access to phones and the internet for over 300 days.
The Weight of Snow on Her Chest renders a portrait of a home in Kashmir—moving through these constant sieges enforced in the region. It distills the effects of an enforced and oppressive isolation that is resisted by the Kashmiris. The photographs are accompanied by verses that draw upon Zainab’s role as a photojournalist documenting property destructions and encounters in Kashmiri homes. The text weighs in where the image cannot and the image where words are not enough.
Zainab is a photographer from Kashmir with a background in photojournalism and visual arts. Her work draws upon personal experiences of survival in a region under military occupation. In her art practice, she documents the disruptions in her home arising out of external violence; in her photojournalistic practice, the work moves from beyond home, to the homeland, documenting daily life in the region.
She is a founding member of Her Pixel Story, a Kashmir based women photographers' collective operating since 2019. She was a part of Pathshala Institute's International Photography Programme 2023-24. Her work has been exhibited at Breda Photo Festival, Netherlands (2022) and Gulf Photo Plus, UAE (2023) among others. The Weight of Snow on Her Chest renders a portrait of a home