a visual dialogue

Fatima Butt from issue #1 and Pavlo Borshchenko from issue #6 completed A Visual Dialogue in a state of journeying away from their usual place of residence, Pakistani artist traveling to and around Saudi Arabia and Pavlo from Ukraine traveled from Poland to Spain.

“Beginning from gloomy days and nights, they built their dialogue searching for light. Light in not just its literal meaning, but also circling around ideas of home, hope and embrace.”

Mission Sunshine

Pavlo: 
I was walking around Warsaw in search of something interesting for the first image. It was about 3 days and daylight was already ending, but then I came across these ice sculptures.

Fatima:
At first glance, I was quite surprised and the closeup frame of the image really caught my eye. I'm so used to building compositions with wider frames with my lens that I have unknowingly become very comfortable with just that.
I have actually been traveling to another city for work and spent the day exploring the tourist spots of the city of Muree in Pakistan. A very famous location, where I took the first picture of our exchange
is a prime spot for newly married couples and it was quite entertaining to yet again witness the quirky yet confined notions of budding love in the city. Unfortunately here in Pakistan, showing affection to your partner isn't received very well. I enjoyed it greatly - as a passerby and sneaky people watcher.
It was quite early in the morning and the entire city was surrounded by mountains. The picture you see below was captured exactly as you see it -a result of a gloomy sky, peeping sun, and cold mist in the air which was challenging my lens to see the unseen.

Pavlo:
A rare sun on a frosty morning shines through the window of my apartment in Warsaw.

Fatima:
For the past 2 days, I have been quite unwell so I’m wearing a holter machine to monitor my heart rate for the next 48 hours. It’s quite uncomfortable to say the least due to which I have been in bed mostly, with the heater on to combat the cold smog-filled winter in Lahore.

Pavlo:
Honestly it was a difficult image to answer for me, if we had more time, I would have looked for an answer for a few more days.

Fatima:
I wish I could've done some market visits to top off the reflective glass - very interesting indeed. Been spending some days at home due to my health so this was a challenging one. Excited to see what you have in store next!

Pavlo:
Benidorm (Spain) is a fantastic place and I want to hug it and all these strange tall buildings in it. A completely different Europe.

Fatima:
Continuing the feeling of embrace, hugging seems to keep my reply coherent to yours. There have been departures from my end and hotel hopping from one city to the other. I am hoping to head from one safe space to the next very soon.

Pavlo:
The environment requires photographing a camel

Fatima:
Ironically, I have been traveling and just landed in Saudi Arabia this morning.

Pavlo:
Yesterday I was returning home to Poland, that's why my last answer is about the home.

Fatima:
Thank you for sharing this with me. Oddly enough, I have also been traveling home! Nice to see how similar homes can be, even continents away.

Following the collaboration we asked Janne and Marisol about the experience.

Describe the collaborative process with a total stranger on the other side of the world.
Fatima:  I enjoyed having something 'out-of-routine' to look forward to. I enjoyed every image exchange thoroughly as it carried an element of surprise.
Pavlo: I really like both the idea and the practice of this idea.

How did the visual dialogue affect your work?
Fatima:  I feel like there hasn't been an outcome just yet. This is a series that I hope to continue in one form or another. I felt like we had just now got the ball rolling.
Pavlo: I don’t presume to evaluate it, for my comfort in this process there was not enough time for a meaningful answer, and the second thing is that it is winter now and there is very little daylight in the place where I live (it started to get dark at 3pm during our dialogue time).
As an aesthete, I'm used to having light and color in my photos, so it was a challenge.

How will it affect the way you work, or think about making work in the future?
Fatima: By communicating back and forth in a visual language, I was able to identify my comfort zone and actively step out of it. This is an observation that I aim to further use in my future dialogues with myself as well as another.
Pavlo: I don't think it directly affects it because I see it as an exercise to maintain the ability to see.
But this exercise is about communication and it helps me to learn how to communicate using visual images and I think this is a valuable skill.

Fatima Butt @fatimabutt6215
@pavloborshchenko

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