Linda Connor is an American photographer (born in 1944), who captures images of sacred sites around the world. Connor has frequently travelled to: India, Mexico, Nepal, Egypt and many more to explore and document sacred places. Throughout her career, she has used an 8*10″ view camera and would contact print the negatives on printing out paper; exposing them with the sunlight in her garden.
In 1979, an Iranian artist called Shirin Neshat had left her native country in order to pursue an education and career in the USA. Twelve years later, she had returned ‘home’ only to discover that Iran had drastically transformed in many aspects such as: socially, politically, economically and culturally. However Neshat was particularly intrigued to explore the concept of women’s rights and how they had lost many of the rights attained during the reign of the Persian monarchy.
‘Woman Of Allah’ is a series of images in which Neshat explores femininity and female rights where she inscribed Arabic over the photographs.
Lastly, Steve McCurry is an American photojournalist, whose most famous image is known as ‘Afghan Girl’, due to the subject’s distinct green eyes. I admire McCurry’s work on ‘Afghanistan’ as his images alone portray a story. He had continuously travelled to there from 1979-2016 to research and produce photographs to show “a seemingly blighted yet beautiful country with a rare and disarming humanity.”
Out of the three photographers, I believe Shirin Neshat’s approach is more new as she uses other mediums such as: video installations to portray her work. Her method of writing on her images for ‘Women of Allah’ is one in which I find inspirational; so much that I may use this for my final portfolio.
