The Visual Voice of the City

In the photo essay Fahim Siddiqui has captured the visual voice of the forgotten as it is articulated on the walls of Karachi: Here the pulse of public opinion can be felt in slogans that announce who is popular and who is not; bravado and defiance is made obvious and poignant and nostalgic verses are painted in a direct manner.
 
This is the space were the people’s love for the city find expression through art; rival sectarian groups challenge each other; on walls, fragments of posters, some still stuck, others torn off rub shoulders with rallying calls to rallies.

Armed with spray cans, stencils, buckets of paint and brushes, professionals and amateurs stalk the city at all times seeking opportunities to add their mark to the cacophony of visual voices as spatial and dimensional limitations are removed and the whole city becomes their canvas.

Fahim Siddiqui, who has been associated as a photographer with the Dawn newspaper is a veteran of the streets of Karachi where over the years, along with images of everyday news, he has built a portfolio of wall chalkings, a small number of which are presented here to bring to the reader messages from the walls of the metropolis.