Flowers of Despair

Flowers of Despair, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

I am posting my next lot of a 4 GB card of pictures shot at the Mahim Urus 2009.. and it is a very long series , a street photographers angst held within the soul of a memory card.

Dargah is synonymous with floral tributes, Indian gods saint deities welcome flowers.. on the wings of flowers your prayers ride..seeking god beyond time and tide..in him we abide..pain as tears as the soul cried...

When I see a picture, I dont see anything ,just a symmetry of street pain, I shoot ordinary pictures badly composed I dont crop, I dont add embellishments, I show you what I saw, poetic pain .

Life is not the two women or the child asleep, like is the empty cane basket searching for redemption...flowers made by low caste women , that will be placed on the soul of the Holy Saint Makhdoom Shah Baba at a price of course..their services are being outsourced by the florist..so a chain of profitability exists in spirituality too...

Yesterday was the first day I did not go to the Dargah. The scene has shifted to the Dargah of Fakhruddin Shah Baba.,also known as Chote Sarkar or Baba Fakhr.

The camera is the greatest teacher of life..more powerful than the rhetoric of a Mullah, or the vitriolic verisimilitude of vanity, the camera is humility bound to the soul of a restless man.

You dont need to be a visionary to be a photographer , you just need to be you, dont get carried away by Anselm Adams or Cartier Bresson.. Fuck gray scale the world of pain is total darkness , read it as a blind man and you will see Truth at the end of the circle of confusion.

Give a child a disposable camera and he will shoot indisposable humanity..so perhaps in a way we are all born as photographers but have to over ride the settings of human pain.

Camera is the only instrument of a Peace..for some it brings wealth, serenity, solace..for beggars like me it connects me to the brotherhood of beggars..as I see them fighting the odds on the viewfinder of my soul.


Sometimes I wonder is there really a thing called mental block, creativity or fragmented genius in my case is the only river that never runs dry...

Photography is capturing the presence of reality - photo blogging is adding a thought where no thought existed..

So now read my picture of the flower weavers without text...your thoughts would no be much different from mine..

Searching For God

Searching For God, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

104,091 items / 677,010 views

searching for god
everywhere
she came to
mahim dargah
a spiritual fair
as she watched
possessed women
grunting groaning
shaking their hair
tired men
head bowed in prayer
a photographer
shooting her pain
trapped mercilessly
in an evil snare
ignoring
privacy settings
her tears of despair
she is ready to share
like you out there
a cross on her
frail shoulders
she too has to bare

The Barefeet Blogger at Mahim

The Barefeet Blogger at Mahim, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

situation
very grim
only god
can save him
as the lights
in the corridors
of his future
one by one
go dim
piranha
infested waters
of fate
he does
not know to swim

The Seat of Wisdom

The Seat of Wisdom, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

rights of admission reserved for fools and pedantic ignoramus and mullahs

in the heart and souls
of children
god lives
through
our children
through our
children's children
blessing to us god gives
because of children
our transgressions
he forgives
a love
like the love of children
needs no motive
our own childhood
within the bosom
of their bounty
held captive

to teresa burke

Kashmiryat - A Cry in the Wilderness

Kashmiryat - A Cry in the Wilderness, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

This is a desperate situation that should be addressed by those concerned, and Mr Omar Abdullah the CM of Kashmir should see the plight of his people begging on the streets of Mumbai...These people need to be rehabilitated , instead of living in shanties on the tracks of Bandra East..I am a photographer who shoots pain as he sees it on the viewfinder of his soul...and this is what I see of a proud race biting the dust.. million light years away from the home made fragrance of Kashmiryat.

The Bawas of Mahim

The Bawas of Mahim, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

103,990 items / 676,120 views

This was shot close to the Holy Shrine of Fakruddin Shah Baba , on the footpath, where the bawas sit among the gemstone dealers , herbal medicine guys.

This is one place I get a peace of mind, and the only hitch is that wherever I go crowds of kids and bystanders accumulate as if from thin air..but they mean no harm , I am a rare exotic animal on the Rafaee circuit..

A little ahead in a alley close to the Holy Shrine is the Dhuni where the Chancawalli Rafaees will sit for three days till the Sandal procession of this shrine..

My good friend Munna Bhai of Sangam decorators is adding the color to the Shrine with embellishments, there is a Qawwali here too..Niyaz and the Works..

A Garbage Called Man

A Garbage Called Man, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

103,990 items / 676,120 views

lying on the road
like rubbish and dirt
man who causes
humanity
the maximum hurt
a time bomb
ticking
beneath
his shirt
with fate
deliriously
he loves to flirt
a seminal flow
a curse and a splurt
a coward a destroyer
a braggart
a pervert
a file corrupted
beyond redemption
wandering aimlessly
like a snake
in the desert