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Robert Capa and Gerda Taro’s 20th Century War Photography

Robert Capa and Gerda Taro’s 20th Century War Photography
robert capa and gerda taro war photography

 

Robert Capa was born in Hungary in 1913, while Gerda Taro was born in Germany in 1910. Both immigrated to Paris during the 1930s where they started working together. They frequently worked in dangerous and explosive environments. They dedicated their lives to capturing the impact of violence on society. They were known for war photography which documented armed wars, military activities, and the effects of war on individuals and societies.

What is War Photography?

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Republican Soldiers, La Granjuela, Córdoba front, Spain by Gerda Taro, 1937 via Magnum Photos

By representing war, artists want to bring attention and awareness to social and political issues. War photography, also known as art depicting scenes from wars, can be considered activist art. It covers armed conflicts, military operations, and devastation. The practice played a particularly significant role in the 20th century. The expansion of mass media and the development of new technologies made it possible for photographers to document and share images of war more widely and quickly than ever before.

Depicting War

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The Third of May, 1808 by Francisco Goya, 1814, via Wikimedia

Art and war have had a complex and often intertwined relationship throughout history. Some artists use their art to document and bring attention to the realities of war and how it affects different people. It has also played a role in shaping public perceptions and attitudes about conflict.

In Western art history, Francisco Goya is famous for his series The Disasters of War (1810-1820) which contains 82 visual depictions of the French occupation of Spain that was led by Napoleon Bonaparte. Goya made the etchings to protest against the French occupation and their aggression in Spain. He depicted the aftermath of war and the struggles of dealing with what was left, both physically and emotionally. The Third of May, 1808, is one of Goya’s most famous paintings depicting the execution of a Spanish peasant by the French troops. Another renowned painting depicting war is Guernica by Pablo Picasso.

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Photojournalism

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Robert Capa and Gerda Taro, via Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York

The 20th century found Europe in turmoil over social and political issues. Photography and magazines broadened the scope of visual information. That’s when photojournalism arose as a new profession to fill the need for visual information and documentation of triumphs and atrocities of wartime.

One of the best-known war photographers of the 20th century was Robert Capa. He covered conflicts around the world, including the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the Vietnam War. His photographs were known for their emotional impact and ability to convey the human cost of wars. Moreover, Picture Post published The Greatest War Photographer in the World: Robert Capa on December 3, 1938, featuring a range of 26 images taken during the Spanish Civil War.

However, Robert Capa was actually a pseudonym for two photographers, Endre Erno Friedmann and Gerta Pohorylle. They were partners both personally and professionally. They met in Paris in the 1930s and began working together as photographers, covering conflicts and wars worldwide. Eventually, the two separated and Friedmann continued using the name Robert Capa, while Pohorylle took the name Gerda Taro. She became the first woman photographer that depicted wars.

Who Was Robert Capa?

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Photographer Robert Capa during the Spanish civil war by Gerda Taro, 1937 via Wikimedia

Robert Capa was a Hungarian-born photographer best known for covering conflicts and wars. Capa began his career as a photojournalist in the 1930s and became one of the best-known war photographers of the 20th century. In 1933, he moved to Paris because of his Jewish identity. He fled the nation due to the danger of the Nazi administration in Hungary. Capa covered conflicts in many parts of the world, including World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Spanish Civil War, which he documented alongside his partner Gerda Taro. He worked for major publications such as Life magazine and Magnum Photos.

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Death of a Spanish loyalist militiaman. Córdoba, Spain, by Robert Capa, via Magnum Photos

Robert Capa’s most famous photograph is The Falling Soldier. It was captured in 1936 at the start of the Spanish Civil War. The photograph shows a Republican soldier being shot and falling to the ground. Capa took this photograph during the Battle of Cerro Muriano, a conflict between the Nationalist and Republican forces in Spain. The photograph became a symbol of the Spanish Civil War and it contributed to Capa’s fame as a war photographer. It was first featured in French and British periodicals and later reproduced in several books and exhibitions.

His other famous photographs include The Kiss of Life which shows a utility worker being rescued from an electrical wire by a colleague after a workplace accident in New York City and the D-Day landings which show Allied soldiers landing on Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion on D-Day in World War II. Capa often worked in dangerous and volatile environments since he was committed to documenting the direct impact of a conflict. Capa’s photographs continue to be highly regarded and widely exhibited and he is considered one of the pioneers of war photography.

Who Was Gerda Taro?

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Republican militiawoman, training on the beach outside of Barcelona by Gerda Taro, 1936 via Magnum Photos

Gerta Pohorylle, known as Gerda Taro, was an artist best known for her work as a war photographer during the Spanish Civil War. Taro was born in 1910 in Stuttgart, Germany. She became interested in photography as a teenager. As Germany sank into economic, social, and political instability, anti-Semitism grew stronger. Taro became interested in left-wing politics after becoming acutely aware of the emergence of the far-right movement. She was detained after spreading anti-Nazi flyers throughout Leipzig in March 1933. Taro went to France soon after, urged by her parents.

Taro began her career as a photojournalist in the 1930s. She also became known for her coverage of the Spanish Civil War. Taro and Capa worked together for major publications such as Life magazine, covering the conflict between the Republican and Nationalist sides. She was known for her bravery and fierce commitment to her work. Some of Taro’s best-known photographs include Refugees from the Spanish Civil War which shows a group of refugees fleeing the conflict in Spain, The Funeral of a Republican Soldier which shows the funeral of a soldier killed during the Spanish Civil War, and The Republican Army on the March that shows Republican soldiers marching through a Spanish town during the conflict.

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Spectators at the funeral parade of General Lukacs by Gerda Taro, 1937, via Magnum Photos

Taro’s photographs capture the human toll of the conflict and the devastating impact it had on civilians. Her pieces are poignant and powerful images that convey the suffering and desperation of the refugees as they seek safety and security amid conflict. Like Capa, Taro is considered one of the pioneers of war photography.

Gerda Taro died in 1937 while covering the Spanish Civil War. Taro was hit by a tank during the Battle of Brunete and died from injuries a few days later. Robert Capa died in 1954 while covering the First Indochina War in Vietnam. Capa was traveling with a group of French soldiers when he stepped on a landmine and died. Both photographers died on battlefields while trying to capture soldiers fighting.

Taro and Capa’s War Photography in Popular Culture

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The Mexican suitcase movie poster from 2011, via Artium Museoa

Taro and Capa’s work has been widely exhibited and featured in books and publications. Their lives and careers have been the subject of multiple films, documentaries, and other popular culture works. For example, there is a song called Taro by the British indie rock band Alt-J. The lyrics of Taro reference Gerda Taro’s life and work as a photographer, with lines like Taro took pictures/Of the world’s disasters and Taro took pictures/Of the factory girls. The song also references Taro’s death at 26 while covering the Spanish Civil War.

Gerda Taro: Inventing Robert Capa is a documentary film about Taro and her work as a war photographer. The film explores Taro’s life and career, including her relationship with Capa. It examines the impact of her work on documentary photography. Gerda Taro: On the Front Line is a book about Taro’s life and career as a war photographer. The book explores Taro’s work in the Spanish Civil War and her role as a documentary photography pioneer.

There is also a film on Robert Capa called Robert Capa: In Love and War. The film explores Capa’s work covering conflicts around the world, including the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Trisha Ziff directed the 2011 documentary film The Mexican Suitcase which depicts the narrative of about 4000 film negatives created by photographers David Seymour, Gerda Taro, and Robert Capa during the Spanish Civil War. The film traces the images’ history from their disappearance at the start of World War II through their rediscovery in 2007.

Haaretz photographer attacked by policeman during protest against Israeli gov’t minister

Haaretz photographer attacked by policeman during protest against Israeli gov’t minister

An Israeli police officer attacked a Haaretz photographer who was documenting a protest against Environment Minister Idit Silman on Thursday. The incident occurred outside a conference at Haifa University where the minister spoke.

In the footage of the attack, the riot police unit officer is seen forcefully pushing Haaretz photographer Rami Shllush without any provocation on his part. Shllush then fell on the ground, causing damage to his camera. Shllush said the policeman apologized afterward.

“While Silman was leaving the hall, I went towards the exit to photograph her and the protesters,” Shllush said. “One of the police officers told me to move. I replied that I’m a journalist, and then I moved to the area in front of the exit,” he added.

“A security guard from the [minister’s personal security] told me to move away, and I also told him I was a journalist – then he pushed me. Suddenly a riot police unit officer came from the side, threw me to the ground. The lens of my camera was damaged as a result.”

Protesters against Environment Minister Idit Silman in Haifa, on Thursday.Credit: Rami Shllush

Following the incident, protesters started shouting “shame” at Silman.

Despite the policeman’s apology, Shllush said that he “expects the police to deal with journalists in an appropriate and non-violent manner.” He added that “Police spokesman Eli Levy also called me and said that he apologizes on behalf of the police, while adding that he discussed the case with the police commissioner to ensure that violence against journalists and citizens will not return.”

Alon Mashali, a witness of the attack, said that police officers also attacked protesters. “I saw the police violently pushing protesters – and the Haaretz photographer was also there,” he said. “No one approached the minister threateningly, and we made sure to keep a distance from her.”

The Police spokesperson said that “during the visit of the Environment Minister in University of Haifa police had to make way for her as she exited the hall due to the gathering of protesters. During the operation, one of the police officers pushed away a man who turned out to be a journalist who did not carry any means of identification.”

“The Police Station Commander and the officer met with the photographer and explained what happened. The case was also transferred to the competent authorities for a further review,” the statement read.

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Blackburn’s Tinky Winky moment

Blackburn’s Tinky Winky moment

Sometimes radical right culture wars, all on their own, just slip from absurd outrage to self-parody. Perhaps the most famous moment was in 1999 when Moral Majority Founder Jerry Falwell proclaimed the purple preschool Teletubby, Tinky Winky, was gay.

Tennessee’s U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn in mid-May had her own Tinky Winky moment when she teamed with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz—rarely a good idea on any matter. The pair of Republican Senators wrote to Brendan Whitworth, Chief Executive Officer of Anheuser-Busch and chair of the Beer Institute, about Bud Light’s dealings with transgender actress and social media personality Dylan Mulvaney.

Blackburn and Cruz declared that Mulvaney’s online content “clearly presents a faux, pre-pubescent girl persona that is created and presented to specifically appeal to young viewers.”  This, they claim, conflicts with beer industry self-regulation against marketing to underage persons. 

One has to marvel at all the staff work that must have gone into the five-page, single-spaced letter, notably its deep dive into Mulvaney’s online works, social media audience demographics and beer marketing guidelines. The letter’s opening vaguely warns of congressional oversight, and ends with a laundry list of documents, some real and some perhaps imagined, that Blackburn and Cruz demanded to be provided to them.

The letter went so far as to compare the Mulvaney endorsement arrangement to the “Joe Camel” cigarette advertisements. Among the many differences, of course, is that Dylan Mulvaney is a real person—an actress, comedian, and social media personality, one known for detailing, starting in early 2022, her male-to-female gender transition. The letter, just for bad measure, five times uses “he” or “him” in reference to Mulvaney.

If U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn truly wants to look at the marketing of dangerous products to children, perhaps she could join President Joe Biden’s call upon the Federal Trade Commission to examine gun manufacturer marketing to children, including the use of social media influencers.

Any casual reader of this letter, however, might wonder how this endorsement arrangement is any different from any beer-endorsing cis-gendered athlete whose social media footprint, activities, promotions, and video game presence all have significant crossover appeal to underage persons. There isn’t any difference.

Blackburn and Cruz appear just to be extending the shelf life of the trans-slamming foolishness that started with Nashville musician and operator of an eponymous honky tonk, Kid Rock, shooting at cans of Bud Light but ends with more nonsense on congressional letterhead.

The letter closes with Cruz and Blackburn signatures, over the identification of him as ranking member of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; and for her as the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security. They likely will stay as the ranking minority members of these committees if they persist in this thinly-veiled prejudice and hate.

If Blackburn and Cruz truly want to look at the marketing of dangerous products to children, perhaps they could join President Joe Biden’s call upon the Federal Trade Commission to examine gun manufacturer marketing to children, including the use of social media influencers. Their work could start with the JR-15, a recently introduced kids’ version of the AR-15 rifle.

Instead, as gun violence rages and Congress careens toward a self-inflicted and economy-wrecking default, Tennessee’s senior U.S. Senator has wasted our time with culture war trash. Blackburn and Cruz give us a contrived “clutch the pearls, think of the children” charade.  Fortunately, we have available to us the current Children’s Defense Fund Action Council legislator ratings, tracking more than 900 congressional bills.

Blackburn and Tennessee’s other Republican U. S. Senator, Bill Hagerty, both got a grade of D (as did Ted Cruz, by the way.) Tennessee’s sole Democratic congressman, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen from Memphis, received an A. Tennessee Reps. John Rose, Andy Ogles, and Mark Green received a grade of C, often with little legislative action helping or harming children.  Reps. Tim Burchett, Chuck Fleischmann, and David Kustoff apparently have done more harm than good, scoring a D. The records of Reps. Diana Harshbarger and Scott DesJarlais were so distressing regarding children that each received a failing grade.

Children face real threats such as underfunded schools, gun violence in schools, excess reliance on standard testing, food insecurity, and inadequate social mobility resources.  They do not need to be props or excuses in Marsha Blackburn legislative performance art.

Blackburn Cruz

Eiteljorg Indian Market & Festival returns June 24-25

Eiteljorg Indian Market & Festival returns June 24-25

Returning for its 31st year, the Eiteljorg Indian Market and Festival will run from June 24-25 at the Eiteljorg Museum, 500 W. Washington St., Indianapolis.

Nearly 120 Native artists from across the U.S. and Canada will be at the museum to sell pottery, jewelry, beadwork, weavings, paintings, carvings and more, as well as presenting cultural performances through music, dance and storytelling.

“Since its inception in 1993, the annual Eiteljorg Museum Indian Market and Festival has grown in stature to become one of the top Native American art markets in the country, as well as a must-do event on the downtown Indianapolis summer calendar. Artists, performers and thousands of market-goers and art buyers have come together at the Eiteljorg to celebrate Native arts and cultures,” said Alisa Nordholt-Dean, vice president for public programs and Beeler family director of education at the Eiteljorg.

Admission for the festival is $25 for non-members at the gate. Eiteljorg members will be admitted for free, with reduced admission available for two adult guests of a member for $20 each. Advance discount tickets are available now for $20 and may be purchased online at Eiteljorg.org/IndianMarketandFestival or by calling 317-636-9378. Attendees ages 17 and younger will be admitted for free during market weekend. Tickets for the market and festival includes admission into the entire museum, galleries and other exhibitions.

For an early start on shopping, registration for the Market Morning Breakfast at 8 a.m. June 24, is available by contacting Jennifer Hiatt by emailing to jhiatt@eiteljorg.com or by calling 317-275-1360. Members can reserve for $50 and non-members can reserve for $60.

Several foods trucks will be available throughout the weekend. Performances for the festival include:

  • Yellow Bird Dancers of Phoenix, Arizona, a professional family dance company performing songs, dances and stories, and led by Ken Duncan (San Carlos Apache Tribe);
  • Firefly the Hybrid of the Penobscot Nation, a multimedia artist from Maine who performs traditional and contemporary music;
  • Randy, Rykelle and Raven Kemp, a family of storytellers, artists and musicians from the Choctaw, Euchee and Muscogee Creek peoples of Oklahoma; and
  • The Levi Platero Band (Navajo Nation), an award-winning act that performs guitar blues and rock.

For more information on the Eiteljorg Indian Market and Festival, visit the website at eiteljorg.org/indian-market-and-festival.

Sustainable Search Engine Optimization: Build a Lasting SEO Strategy

Sustainable Search Engine Optimization: Build a Lasting SEO Strategy

The Gist

  • SEO is a continuous process, not a one-time project. To be effective, SEO needs to be treated as a long-term, ongoing process rather than a series of independent, short-term projects. It requires regular attention and management due to constantly changing factors such as Google’s algorithm, your website’s content, and your competition.
  • Quality content is crucial for SEO: Providing well-written, purposeful content is at the heart of any successful SEO strategy.
  • Choosing the right SEO partner can enhance results: Working closely with an SEO agency or expert over a sustained period can lead to better results. As the SEO team becomes more familiar with your content and keywords, they can more effectively optimize your site.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a fundamental aspect of website management that is critical to build brand awareness and generate leads. If people can’t find your website content, then much of the efforts made around creating an excellent site and impactful content are effectively wasted.

Despite SEO’s importance, many digital marketing and web teams remain surprisingly unaware of SEO basics. For many, it still remains something of a dark art and a mysterious practice that requires deep expertise with constantly shifting requirements.

Due to a lack of internal skills as well as resourcing and budgetary constraints, many teams choose to rely on external expertise for SEO. This is often a sensible approach, especially as there are some SEO practices which can be quite specialist, but it can lead to some issues:

  • SEO efforts and improvement tend to come in short, independent bursts based around engaging specialists on an ad hoc basis, rather than providing an ongoing and continuous SEO process.
  • There are a lot of self-proclaimed SEO experts, but it can be hard for digital marketing teams to ascertain whether the advice and action they are receiving is successful or not.
  • There is no transfer of skills to the digital marketing team in terms of awareness and knowledge of SEO practices.

The combination of these trends can lead to SEO that is less effective than it should be, and does not deliver the kind of long-term, continuous improvement in SEO that digital teams are looking for and that delivers tangible results.

Why Is Sustainable SEO Critical?

To get the best results it’s important to take a more sustainable and less short-term approach to SEO. Let’s look at some of the reasons for this.

Effective SEO Is a Moving Target

SEO doesn’t stay still. Improvements made that might be effective today may not necessarily still be effective in the future. Changes can happen across a number of different criteria that will impact SEO, including the way Google constructs its algorithm, changes to your own website or the content that feeds it, or even changes to your CMS. New keywords also come along and other websites can start to outperform you. For all these reasons and more, SEO is effectively a moving target that needs ongoing attention and management.

Related Article: State of SEO: Google Search Algorithm Updates for Q2 2023

SEO Is a Process Not a Project

Successful SEO is hard to achieve if you take a short-term view. Hiring an SEO consultant every so often isn’t going to cut it. It’s much more about delivering an ongoing process that continues to add new content that is optimized for SEO and builds on success.

The core of successful SEO is implementing everyday processes and practices that are part of the way you manage a website and its content, rather than activating a series of separate projects.

Content Is King

Providing well-written content that has a purpose is still at the center of any successful SEO strategy. Content can’t also only be about SEO — it has to appeal to your audiences to make them want to visit and then return to your site.

Any approach to SEO also needs to have an accompanying content strategy that defines your medium- to long-term goals for content and ensures it has value.

Related Article: Google Helpful Content Update Improves Customer Experience and SEO Strategy

Keeping Your Eyes on Your Data, With the Right Tools and Research

Successful SEO by its very nature is data-driven and therefore has a dependency on ensuring there are the right tools for reporting and keyword research. In particular, it’s important that your analytics package (for example Google Analytics) is configured in a way that aligns with your SEO goals and processes.

The SEO and analytics tools landscape is wide; having the right tools in place is an important component in establishing a more sustainable approach to SEO and utilizing your data to the fullest.

Picking the Right Partner and Sticking With Them

We believe SEO works best in a partnership. One thing we’ve found is that when an SEO agency or expert works together closely with a client over a sustained period of time, the SEO team gets to better know the types of content and specialist keywords that are going to resonate with a segmented audience.

At the same time, the marketing team will gain a better understanding of SEO practices, particularly if they are beginners and less experienced, but also potentially even if they have advanced knowledge. This can influence the way content is written and reviewed, so it is already partly SEO-optimized before being worked upon by an SEO agency.

Ultimately when the SEO team knows a target audience, and the marketing team knows more about SEO, it can better align content management practices with the SEO process, which ultimately leads to better SEO performance.

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Pakistani native Slowspin explores the immigrant experience with electronic music

Pakistani native Slowspin explores the immigrant experience with electronic music

Making music under the name Slowspin, Zeerak Ahmed blends North Indian classical vocal traditions with modern shoegaze, psychedelic rock, folk, ambient and experimental sounds.

Ahmed first came to the United States to attend Hiram College in 2009, and she has lived in Cleveland since 2019. She spent most of the COVID-19 pandemic teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Art and composing music.

The Pakistani-born multimedia artist released her first full-length, “Talisman,” last month. She collaborated on the album with a group of notable musicians and producers in Brooklyn, New York.

“We just swam in sound,” Ahmed said. “It’s like the first time I wrote the song is the recording you hear. And I build around that. Let all the deep sounds of the lows and the highs – and the flutes and all the textures in between the two – wash through you.”

Learning to make music in Pakistan

While this is Slowspin’s first full-length release, the artist is not new to making music.

Her journey began in her hometown of Karachi, Pakistan, where she grew up in a strong creative and musical family.

Ahmed began taking vocal lessons in Pakistan around age 15.

Electronic music started to grow in popularity within the region’s underground music scene, and Ahmed was fascinated by the digital technologies used to produce the sounds.

She came to the U.S. to study visual arts, and Hiram’s quiet campus gave her the space and inspiration to begin writing her own music.

“I was spending a lot of time, just me, myself, my acoustic guitar on GarageBand, recording these little melodies,” she said. “That felt like my truth.”

Ahmed realized she could best express herself through sound, rather than the visual arts she originally pursued.

“There’s something deeply spiritual and powerful about sound. And it really, really resonated with me.”

Zeerak Ahmed

She told her parents, “I want to actually use my voice to say the things that I want to say.”

She fell in love with Ohio for its green, natural beauty, which she said contrasts with Karachi’s landscape.

“All my friends were going to schools they either visited or heard of before. I was going to a school that nobody knew of. The third day I called my dad. I was like, ‘Biggest mistake. There are more cows than people. I’ve never seen so much land.’ I’m joking about the cows. It was just fantastic,” she said.

After college, she returned to her hometown in 2012. Around this time, she became a formative member of the independent music scene in Karachi, where she was part of the “muhajir,” or immigrant community.

Countercultural music was a primarily male-dominated space, and she said that presented challenges despite her successfully releasing an EP and working with an indie record label there.

“I knew I was coming into this place, which politically was going through its own turmoils. And there was a great risk being at shows or having shows,” she said. “That, added with the constant threat of being this female always at the risk of being objectified, and that taking over, as opposed to your craft being respected and given attention.”

She said in the last decade, she has noticed a shift in her native Pakistan with more women being embraced by the underground music scene.

“They’re doing phenomenal work, and there’s a lot more support,” she said.

Creating her debut full-length album

Ahmed has traveled between Pakistan, Germany and the U.S. releasing six total Slowspin EPs and creating voice-based sound sculptures and installations.

Zeerak Ahmed poses with a microphone and headphones

Alyse Nelson

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Zeerak Ahmed worked on her Slowspin album, “Talisman,” with notable producers and musicians in Brooklyn, New York, during the pandemic. She plans to move from Cleveland to New York to pursue music full time.

Her distinct sound is rooted in the Hindustani classical vocal style, with elements like ambient soundscapes accented by plucky folk guitars.

On her debut LP, Ahmed worked with producer Grey Mcmurray, noted for his collaborations with artists like Gil-Scott Heron and John Cale.

Over the course of three days, Ahmed and Mcmurray conducted an extended improv session with Shahzad Ismaily, Aaron Roche and Greg Fox at Figure 8 recording studio in New York.

The three days of sound experimentation turned into three years of writing “Talisman.”

“It’s got songs that belong to lyrical traditions, poetic traditions, I don’t know, 700 years old or older. But there’s also so much of my own writing there as well,” Ahmed said.

She said her compositions and the arrangements on the album represent her journey as a migrant experiencing new things and longing for those she had to let go of.

The 10 songs feature vocals in English as well as Urdu, Farsi and Purbi. The lead single, “Hamari,” pulls from a devotional poem by Muslim Sufi poet Nawab Sadiq Jung Bahadur Hilm.

Other tracks tie universal feelings of love and loss with the migrant experience, all accented by dreamy production and instrumentation.

A migrating artist

Ahmed returns to Pakistan every year and works with Karachi Community Radio, which features emerging artists in the region’s electronic music scene.

In 2019, Ahmed met her now-partner while visiting college friends in Cleveland.

“And here we are. I wasn’t too sure about Cleveland being my new home, but March of 2020, I was visiting my partner and seven days later, so seven days into the trip, I got a text from Emirates saying, ‘Due to the global pandemic, all flights back are indefinitely canceled,’” she said.

Aside from making music, Ahmed is still heavily involved in other art forms, teaching liberal arts and visual arts at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

In 2022, she received the CAN Triennial Prize for her Akron Art Museum sound installations.

Her current work focuses on archiving South Asian female folk music traditions and creating new visual work from these histories.

“There’s something deeply comforting. There’s something deeply spiritual and powerful about sound. And it really, really resonated with me. The notes, the ways to channel sound through the body,” she said. “I thought that was incredibly powerful and it was very healing. That became a kind of guide throughout my life.”

Ahmed plans to relocate from Cleveland to New York to pursue music full time. Before then, she will perform as Slowspin at Cleveland’s Re:Sound, a festival for new and experimental music, June 11.

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