Grad's Photos Seek Dialogue

Recent Knox College graduate Farah Ahed is a "people" photographer -- that's why she gave her first off-campus photography exhibition the title of "Dialogue." The show was held July 18-21 in her home city of Karachi, Pakistan.

The theme was inspired by "conversations with the people I photograph," explains Ahed, an award-winning photographer and 2007 Knox graduate.

The show of 89 photographs was held in the corporate headquarters of Ahed Associates, a leading Karachi architectural, engineering and design firm founded by her grandfather M.A. Ahed and managed by her father Ejaz Ahed, both noted architects.

Ahed has taken photographs on the Knox campus and in Galesburg, Chicago, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. "I spend time getting to know people and finding the beauty in their ordinary-ness," Ahed said. "I want to show the humanity and commonality in all cultures."

In 2007 she was a finalist in the annual College Photography Contest sponsored by Photographer's Forum magazine, and in 2008 one of her photos was selected for the National Geographic website feature "Daily Dozen."

Since graduating from Knox with majors in anthropology-sociology and photojournalism, Ahed has worked on documentary films and taught photography at the middle and high school level in Karachi. "I've been traveling a lot to collect new shots for my exhibition, which will be up on my website after the show."

Ahed plans to enter the master's program in photography at the Academy of Art in San Francisco.