Different lives through a lens

“Pakistan is a hall of mirrors there’s so much going on and so much misunderstanding especially from a European standpoint I just wanted to go over and find my own narrative and tell that story from the ground look where it’s daily life, capturing the peace of Islam, the feeling of community across Pakistan, the effervescent children always out playing and the humbling everyday kindness granted to us and everyone else living there.”

Rather than people being suspicious of a white man with his camera Irvine says he found it really opened doors for him.

"People would come up and ask me what I was doing with my camera and it was a great way of starting conversations. I felt so safe. Everyone was so welcoming, we were their guests and they hardly let us pay for anything.”

Irvine says he found the 12 day trip through Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Mirpur, Lahore and Karachi at times incredibly emotional and he was surprised by the generosity of everyone they met.

"There were times when I did cry – it is hard, some of the things you see are really hard.”

He didn’t really have a plan of what he wanted to photograph and was guided by what he observed. The result is a stunning photographic essay on his blog, although he hopes he might be able to enlarge some of the photographs he took and turn them into an exhibition.

"I’m inspired by Caravaggio who painted all walks of life in one massive painting and I love that but you just can’t get that looking at a photograph on your phone. I want people to see them in large scale and to start conversations. I love shooting the old fashioned way on film and I have had the photographs processed I just haven’t had the time to sort through them.

“I took far too many cameras and equipment but I wanted to be able to see what felt right using different lenses and techniques. I am quite an anxious photographer and I overthink everything.”

Irvine and his friends, photographers Kristian Leven and Barnaby Aldrick, would go their own way, shooting photographs all day long and then get together in the evening and share what they’d taken.

"The other two are very different stylistically to me so we all had really different looks – but all with the same positivity despite the poverty.”

The only things that concerned him was the massive gap between the poor and the rich and the attitudes towards women.

“It’s hard to be around,” he recalls. “It quickly became clear that my presence with a camera was making many women uncomfortable. Some would turn away, others would cover their faces, and many would simply walk in the opposite direction. The last thing I ever want to do is make someone feel uncomfortable and I wanted to respect their culture. I come from a British way of what I think is how society should be, equal rights, but it’s very much not the same there, although no one could really explain to my why.”

But he didn’t want to leave the country with women’s voices unheard, but even when he asked permission of the women’s husbands he was denied every time.

"Asking felt strange to me, coming from a place where that dynamic doesn’t exist, and I was declined more often than I can remember. I wanted to be respectful but I also wanted to show what I saw. I was frustrated and I think I show that in my photographs.”

But eventually he came across a young couple celebrating their first wedding anniversary.

"We started chatting and I ended up taking a few portraits of them in the evening light, but for me it was incredibly meaningful. After days of navigating these social boundaries, being trusted with that moment felt special and made me so emotional. I took a portrait of Abdullah’s wife, standing in the soft light with the sea behind her, the simplicity of the portrait speaks a thousand words. It wasn’t just about the photograph, it was about the trust that made it possible.”

While in Pakistan Irvine came across a charity – the Bubbly Foundation. "I’d been shooting photographs for a week and half, going into communities walking around meeting people and if felt like we were taking quite a lot, but not really giving anything back although we did try to where it felt right,” he says. "I was in a Mall in Karachi the day before we were due to fly home, having just been told to stop taking photographs. But when one door closes, another opens. I overheard some British accents, got chatting and found they were a group of British Pakistanis who run a charity called the Bubbly Foundation, raising money to deliver aid to some of Karachi’s poorest communities.” Irvine asked if he could get involved as way of giving something back tot he country that had hosted him for 12 days.

"On my final day in Pakistan, I went with the team to photograph their last day of a whole week of aid distribution. The almighty effort put in the Bubbly Foundation to help as many people as possible was a beautiful show of humanity – I was so fortunate to close out an eye opening trip with the team.

“I was handing out bags of aid and an elderly gentleman, a man I would never have come across was next in line. I handed him the bag and the connection between us was made. His eyes glistened with tears. He smiled, I smiled and we embraced. He raised his hands to Allah with joy and gratefulness, and I raised my camera and captured the most meaningful photograph of the trip for me.”

Irvine comes from a family of journalists, but he decided he preferred to tell stories visually. “I’m obsessed with telling stories – to me that’s what wedding photography is about. I really want to understand wo people are and get them across on camera.” He studied photography at university although he says he didn’t really think it taught him that much. “It’s really all about learning on the job, and communication.”

He’s now back shooting weddings until December but is already planning his next trip. “I now have a hunger for going to places where there is no tourism. Bangladesh might be on the cards. It is another Muslim country but it is very different to Pakistan. You can go places and feel like a pariah or you can go and feel like you are part of the community.”

Having had the experience with the Bubbly Foundation is also keen to give something back and do more charity work in the future.

To see more of Hamish’s photographs of Pakistan and read his blog visit hamishirvine.com/wedding-blog/pakistan-street-photography