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Mehreen (Lali) Khalid came to the United States from Pakistan in 2007 as a Fulbright Scholar and attended Pratt Institute, NY where she received an MFA in Photography in 2009. After returning to Pakistan for two years, she immigrated to the United States in 2011. Issues relating to diaspora, identity, family and home dominate Khalid’s photographic inquiry. Her images focus on cultural and private conflicts, broaching these topics obliquely through the emotive effects of natural light, and subdued narrative allusion. By photographing primarily in color, and using the startling qualities of “found light,” Khalid’s photographs exist between a mood of quiet longing. Lali Khalid has shown her work in numerous exhibitions throughout Europe, Pakistan, and the U.S., including most recently at Light Work, Roy G Biv and Devos Museum. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Photography in the Roy H. School of Communications, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY.
Home. In my heart, beating far away is significant in many ways, including its return of sorts to the photo book. Similar to songs on a CD or album, these photographs can all stand on their own, but when viewed collectively show a narrative progression that yields richer meditations on the intersection of diaspora, acculturation, and motherhood. Like Robert Frank's use of gesture in The Americans, Khalid uses various forms of cloth--shirts, blankets, dupattas, baby slings, hijabs, sheets, blindfolds, underwear--as transitional objects pulling the viewer from one image to the next. Her works bear some resemblance to works featured in The Museum of Modern Art's groundbreaking 1991 exhibition Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort, which was one of the first to feature photographers who focused on the home; however, at 30 years old and featuring mostly white photographers, the subject gets a much-needed update from Khalid. Khalid uses the genre of self-portraiture to explore the role of motherhood following along the lines of Diane Arbus, Renee Cox, Catherine Opie, and Annie Wang, among others.
