Artist Profiles | Sahir Raza

Sahir Raza is a student, living in New Delhi. Through his photographs he has tried to represent the weaker sections of society within his country.

Born in 1986 in New Delhi, Sahir began shooting when he was 9. His initial projects were based on environmental problems in India. He has exhibited his work at the Millenium Children's conference in the UK and accross India. Participation in the Millenium Photo Project led to the selection of a photograph in the final 50 that were displayed a the O'hare airport, Chicago for an year.

In 2002, at the age of 15, photography became a much more serious medium for Sahir. The attempt now was to show the terrible suffering caused by the fundamentalist religious riots and attacks particularly in Gujarat. The communal carnage in Gujarat shook whole world. It was difficult to believe such intense communal frenzy could be incited by the then ruling Hindu BJP Party for its political gains. More than 2000 people were killed according to Amnesty International.

On 28th February more than 100 persons were killed in Ahmedabad alone. Some of the most horrific incidents took place in a place called Naroda Patia where more than 80 persons were burnt alive including women and children and number of women were raped in full gaze of the public.

Sahir's exhibition eventually travelled to all of India and then 7 states in the US.

His photographs were used (and since have been used) by all sorts of organisations working against the rise of fundamentalism in India.

Sahir also shot in all the Tsunami hit areas of India and has since been working with youth for peace, a student organization working against the communalism. He is now about to join EICAR, a school in Paris, where he will be studying film direction.