Halal Carts | Times Square, NYC
“Halal Carts / Times Square, NYC" is a documentary short film and photography project that paints a portrait of the people who predominantly cook and sell halal food at the carts in Times Square, New York. Shot in a painterly fashion, with the shutter of the camera slowed down to interpolate time, this film documents the process of cooking halal food on a mobile food cart run on loud generators in the midst of one of the most popular, chaotic and iconic places in the world, Times Square NYC.
Focused on showing the various Muslim men and women who are hidden behind the smoke and flames of the neon lit carts, we see the intensity of halal food being prepared. Close-up shots of chicken and lamb kabobs fill the screen, juxtaposed with the endless digital advertisements, news tickers, broadway shows, security cameras, and tourists that wander in Times Square. Inspired by the documentary works of Fredrick Wiseman, Nathaniel Dorsky and also street photographers who have captured the late night scene of Times Square from the 1970s, 80s and 90s. The camera meditates rhythmically in trance, the lens reflects intense light, exposing life echoing within Times Square - ephemeral brushes of motions are a danse macabre of fading memories. When 3 a.m. rolls around, the carts close for business, and each vendor wheels the cart to a washing depot. Hands ritualistically wash, scrub and cleanse the charred metal of grease and oil, polishing the mirrored surfaces to shine in the light of the next day.
2022 - PRESENT
shadow of paradise
"Shadow of Paradise" consists of 97 photographs depicting my family who are alive, dead, or missing in Iraq. As an Iraqi immigrant displaced, and living in the United States, this project is dear to my heart as I come to terms with the country I grew up in being slowly eroded and redacted from history.
The photographs began from a tiny image posted on the Internet. Imagery has been appropriated from Instagram for photos of my uncles and cousins, brothers and sisters, as I blindly search for accounts bearing my last name. Unearthing images of my family through social media as an act of ethnoarchaeology gives me hope that these young girls still live on as my beautiful cousins who adored Barbie dolls and Disney princesses when we lived in Iraq. I do not believe their fathers and brothers were so lucky to survive. In each photo, the male figure and background setting is void of color - as a symbol of anonymity as well as annihilation. I digitally manipulate the details on the female figures depicted in the photographs, breathing color and life back into their visages.
I am connected by blood to these people, and if these accounts do not belong to the specific family I remember, it is irrelevant. Before the memories of my loved ones fade, I have constructed "Shadow of Paradise" as a photo album capturing the obscured image of the fragile life that exists in Iraq.
I have currently self-published the book - comprising 183 pages, hardcover, linen bound in a limited edition print. Copies are printed by request and include a hand painted image from the book.
