This here is 1/5th of a 100-page, paperback, A5 book. The book is self-funded, self-published, supporting a modest, local printing company in Pakistan. There are photos, typography, illustrations, doodles, everything — basically a flea market.
“The Shape of Elsewhere” is born out of giving up, of reconsidering the ‘why’ me and others like me give up, and of realizing that ultimately, giving up is a luxury simply because there is no cushion to fall onto.
This is the first volume that will eventually become one big anthology series. This first volume spans across five countries and more than 30 cities, towns, and villages, from 2021 to 2025, most of which were traveled by foot — Pakistan, Tajikistan, Oman, Japan, and Sri Lanka.
If anyone’s interested to buy, send me a DM.
70% of sales will go to charity for the people you see in these photographs. Ships worldwide. DM for more 📥
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The recent flooding all over Pakistan has drawn attention to the poor management of rivers in the country.
Approximately 268 million people in Pakistan rely on the Indus River and its basin for their livelihoods and well-being. This includes access to drinking water, irrigation for agriculture, and power generation.
Rural Pakistanis (more than half the population) use irrigation water from the river for domestic purposes, even though it is unfit for drinking and a major cause of stunting and diarrhea.
In Karachi, a megacity of over 20 million people, it is estimated that more than 30,000 people die every year because of unsafe water — 20,000 of whom are children.
Water pollution in the Indus comes from a number of sources, some of the main culprits include untreated sewage from cities, along with a wide range of industrial discharge: from organic matters and ions to inorganic wastes such as fluoride, silica, and cyanide. Finally, thermal power plants along the Indus cause sudden increases in surface water temperature that harm marine life.
Water pollution has even started to cause deaths among livestocks, along with medium to long-term threats to human lives. Karachi itself has annual outbreaks of cholera, with over half of the underprivileged children in Karachi having intestinal parasites. Exposure to polluted water in these underprivileged areas has also become the source of skin and ocular diseases.
This is part of an ongoing documentary project of mine, titled “Delaying Calamity” where I document the impact of climate change, pollution, and educational deprivation in urban and rural areas of Pakistan (which make up more than half of the population). This project not only highlights the calamity itself, but also the brave people who are fighting to not only delay but reverse the catastrophe.
Thanks to @thirdworldwatch for sharing this story.
#pakistan #climatechange #waterpollution #education #photodocumentary #documentary #documentaryphotography #climateactionnow #karachi #climatechangeisreal #climatechangeawareness
In Pakistan, approximately 6.88 million babies are born each year, and it is expected that the country’s population will exceed 380 million by the year 2050. But with that comes a big challenge that the nation has to grapple with each year—healthcare awareness. Significant disparities exist in access to quality healthcare, with underserved areas often facing shortages of facilities, staff, and essential medications.
Last week, @vhc.foundation , an NGO based in Karachi, introduced me to their work. Along with their team from @khairunisaeyehospital , we went to a cantonment within the Malir District on the eastern side of Karachi called Khokhrapar, to distribute the much needed eye care treatment for this small, mainly pastoral community of the megacity Karachi.
#pakistan #karachi #photography #documentaryphotography #documentary #eyecare #healthcare #ngo #35mm
It’s been a long while and I’m back to doing one thing I do best since I was a kid: drawing. Or painting… this time digital. And having been very deep into the whole US sanction, invasion, and occupation of Iraq, one’s mind can’t simply just unplug all that knowledge of the atr*cities committed there and go about his day. Too many questions left unanswered. Unsatisfied with the state of moral depravity in this world that has more and more chooses to forget. Somewhere, some family from some two-three decades ago in Fallujah, Baqouba, Baghdad, and other cities are still trapped in that horror of a memory.
The thing is that today is Sunday and the orange guy is walking back and forth the oval office going “America… America is the best country… IN the whole world. America’s got some amazing people. Amazing people here in the White House. We’re gonna make the White House Ballroom the best ballroom you’ll ever see. CHHAIINAA, will come and beg for us.” I know y’all are reading that in his voice.
#capitalism #illustrators #illustration #digitalpainting #allaprima
For dreams are just like wine
And I am drunk with mine
I’m aware
My heart is a sad affair
There’s much disillusion there
But I can dream, can’t I?
At what point did we willingly exchange smiles with the face that refuses to even glance at each other for just one second? What if the time ends right here, at this moment — have we lost so much of who we can be? If time ends now, will we carry the gold and status we worked so hard to achieve?
#workingclass #latestagecapitalism #shotonkodak #kodak #35mmfilmphoto
First copy is printed, though there are quite a handful of things that need to be corrected. I love how producing something like this is a serious challenge, mostly due to the lack of access to decent quality printing productions — if anything, this only proves the exact topic of the book itself.
In some parts of the world, mediocrity is deeply embedded in every aspect, not because we want it, but because those in power understood that mediocrity creates a society dependent on authority. Come to Southeast Asia and you’ll see how clear the social disparity is: a luxury mall selling LVs, YSLs, Chanels, Pradas — next to it, a literal slum, where the majority live from less than $100 a month to less than $50 the next month.
In such environment, everything feels like they hit you quite literally at once: having no money, no proper education, no access to healthcare, no choice. In such environment, mediocrity is inevitable, and this is exactly what the people in power want.
This is what this book is about. So far it seems like production will move elsewhere, so I’ll give more updates soon. Thank you to everyone who has pre-ordered! Now that the bad news is out of the way, the good news is that I’ll add more from some places I will document this year, so that means the book will be the photos I took from 2021-2026. Once again, thank you!
Lots of love,
Hendry
#workingclass #streetphotography #expiredfilmgallery #visualanthropology #anthropology #booksbooksbooks #bwfilm #centralasia #bookdesigns #tajikistan #theanaloguedispatch #books #35mm #photographybooks #bookdesign #photobooks #humanisticphotography #documentaryphotography #shotonkodak #travelphotographer #bnwportrait #kodak #timelessphotomag #friendsinprofile #photobook
So quiet you can hear the crackles of your dried out skin, burnt by the heat. Almost no wind, like time just stood still. Stillness is a thing I long for more and more as the world shifts into collapse.
Oman, 2025. #shotoniphone
#docuseries #streetphotography #expiredfilmgallery #visualanthropology #anthropology #workingclass #bwfilm #centralasia #35mmfilmphoto #omantravel #theanaloguedispatch #kodakfilm #gulf #vipphotomagazine #pvmondayemotions #timelessphotomag #humanisticphotography #documentaryphotography #bnwstreetphotography #travelphotographer #bnwportrait #35mmphoto #oman #friendsinprofile #muscat #blackandwhitephotographymag
I’ve seen your face
In every place that I’ll be goin’
I read your words
Like black hungry birds read every sowin’
Rise and fall, spin and call
And my name is Carnival
Sad music in the night
Sings a scream of light out of chorus
And voices you might hear
Appear and disappear in the forest
Short and tall, throw the ball
And my name is Carnival
Strings of yellow tears
Drip from black-wired fears in the meadow
And their white halos spin
With an anger that is thin and turns to sorrow
King of all, hear me call
Hear my name: Carnival
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at exactly 12:00 midnight
1973-74
Los Angeles
it began to rain on the
palm leaves outside my window
the horns and the firecrackers
went off
and it thundered.
I’d gone to bed at 9:00 p.m.
turned out the lights
pulled up the covers —
their gaiety, their happiness
their screams, their paper hats,
their automobiles, their women
their amateur drunks...
New Year’s Eve always terrifies me
life knows nothing of years.
now the horns have stopped and
the firecrackers and the thunder...
it’s all over in five minutes...
all I hear is the rain
on the palm leaves,
and I think,
I will never understand men,
but I have lived
it through.
- “Palm Leaves” by Charles Bukowski
New year has always been a confusing time for me. Billions of people celebrate a cosmic “reset”. Yet, for a cosmic reset, nothing changes much: it’s still cold outside, crops don’t magically grow, the same scums are still in charge of telling us it’s time to eat even though we aren’t hungry, the day just turns… Thursday: bills to pay, more bills to pay. The Romans really screwed the world over changing new year from March to January.
I learned about Bukowski only after high school. It was the first time I lived alone and somehow I spent my time listening to Bukowski’s reads and learning typography in between tasks during architecture school. And as I get older, his poems only get more and more relatable.
#bwportrait #streetphotography #expiredfilmgallery #visualanthropology #anthropology #workingclass #bwfilm #centralasia #pamir #tajikistan #theanaloguedispatch #kodakfilm #southasia #vipphotomagazine #pvmondayemotions #timelessphotomag #humanisticphotography #documentaryphotography #newyear #travelphotographer #bnwportrait #newyear2026 #pakistan #friendsinprofile #newyearsday #bwportraits #blackandwhitephotographymag
Christmas, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and Pakistan are a lot more synonymous than you think.
M. Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was born 149 years ago today, on Christmas day, 25 December 1876. Pakistan itself is comprised of 96% Muslims, but only roughly 1.27-1.37% of them are Christians, one of those happens to be Karachi’s legendary painter of the bygone cinema era, Parvez Bhatti.
Parvez has been painting for nearly four decades, though since movies don’t use painters for their posters and ads anymore, he still does it because it is a big part of who he is.
Being a Christian in Pakistan has never been an issue for him, everyone loves him, and he loves everyone. After all, there is no greater commandment in the Bible than “love thy neighbor…”
Moreover, Parvez lives in Lyari, a district contributing to making Karachi ranked as the sixth most dangerous city in the world in 2014. Though crime is still high, Karachi is safer now, so is Lyari. But even in 2014, four decades ago, or today, Parvez has never felt discriminated, he’s always felt loved, he is a big part of Lyari.
Being the only few left of Pakistan’s old cinema era, struggling… sometimes he feels like he’s dancing with no one… with emptiness… with solitude.
DM to pre-order my photobook! Check my pinned post for more info 📌
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