This is a first exhibition for Sadia Ashraf: a self taught photographer with an eye for detail of the things we tend to pass by in life; things which in the moment may seem irrelevant, but when captured on camera can have so much meaning. Creating stories through photography is a passion of mine. I have wide ranging specialities but some of my favourites to shoot are nature, flowers, and food.
I love to inspire people the way the great photographer Steve Bloom has inspired me. I want to make people stop in order to take a step back, and force them to take a different view on life. Force them to take a step back in order to catch their breath at the beauty of something. A reaction like this is why I live to photograph Life.
The pieces exhibited were taken in The Millennium Garden on The University of Nottingham Campus. The Garden has a Time theme and the idea behind my work is the relationship between Time and Nature.
The Garden is made up of living things: growing plants and trees; flowing water, and as with everything in life, these things will one day come to pass – as have the people to whom plaques are dedicated around the fountain area of the Garden. This circle of Life will continue, as of course it always does, and I wanted to create a photographic representation of the beauty of the living subjects placed together, representing the one thing – Time – that has taken away the people to whom the Garden is dedicated. I like the poignancy of this circular relationship of the living representing that which is passing by or has passed away.
The idea behind the capture of the metal sculpture is a representation of the juxtaposition of the permanency of the numbers etched into the metal, against the fluid passing of Time, which can never be captured or stored by anybody. Therefore, capturing such moments on camera makes them all the more beautiful and engaging – they become a freeze frame of something that can never be recreated.
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