For the past 25 years, Fazal Sheikh has photographed displaced and marginalized members of society, particularly refugees, in Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. His principle medium is the portrait, although his work also encompasses personal narratives, found photographs, archival material, sound, and his own written texts. He works from the conviction that a portrait is, as far as possible, an act of mutual engagement, and only through a long-term commitment to a place and to a community can a meaningful series of photographs be made. Sheikh spends weeks, months, or even years with the communities he portrays, developing an understanding of their history and culture and building a collaborative rapport with the individuals he photographs. Running throughout his work are threads of memory and history, remembrances of homes and loved ones that were once—and remain—essential elements of individual and community identity. Sheikh explores those threads not only in the faces of individuals, but also in their visible traces on the landscape and in the way they are revealed poetically in moments of transition—dawn and dusk, dreams and death. His overall aim is to contribute to a wider understanding of these groups, to respect them as individuals and to counter the ignorance and prejudice that often attaches to them.

Fazal Sheikh was born in 1965 in New York City and graduated from Princeton University in 1987. His awards and fellowships include the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Henri Cartier-Bresson International Grand Prize and the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography.  His work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, United Nations, and International Center of Photography, New York; Tate Modern, London, and the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, Paris; amongst others. His work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; J. Paul Getty Museum, California, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

For more details, his photographs, books, projects and human rights activities in all parts of the world, consult Fazal Sheikh’s website.