Farah Mahbub

Born in 1965 in Karachi (Pakstan)
Lives and works in Karachi (Pakistan)

Farah Mahbub was born and brought up in Karachi. Her visual journey has explored various photographic genres, ranging from fine art, commercial, architectural and landscape photography. Mahbub’s work has been exhibited both locally and internationally and has been published in books, most notably Journeys of the Spirit: Pakistan Art in the New Millennium. She joined the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in 1997 as a faculty member, where she has been ever since. Under her tenure, photography has evolved from a single class into an undergraduate minor spanning the Communication Design and Fine Art and Interior Design departments.

Farah Mahbub writes the following of her triptych for KB17: “As the city grows and expands with time, its magnitude and character experience alterations. These shifts happen at an unpredictable pace. The city is continuously including or excluding old structures. Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ghazi r.a shrine was, and still is, a significant Karachi landmark. This Sufi saint has for centuries been a witness to beautiful, restless Karachi. Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ghazi Baba r.a was martyred in the year 773 and was buried on top of a hill in Karachi. He was a Syed (lineage of the Holy Prophet of Islam). And his burial site for the longest time was a hut on this high ground, which much later, around the 1960s, was built upon to create a mazaar (shrine), with several other modifications assembled over the years. All my life I have felt blessed to be conscious of the saint by the seashore. I can’t imagine the city without his presence.”