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A Place I Never Knew
A Place I Never Knew, Photographs by Tira Khan
November 14, 2022 – February 20, 2023
A Place I Never Knew (2019) explores Rampur, India, a Muslim-majority city and artist Tira Khan’s ancestral home. Formerly a Princely State of British India, Rampur gained independence in 1949. Today, the city struggles with increasing poverty and illiteracy. Ranging from sensitive portraits of residents to photographs of urban structures and homes, Khan’s images are intensely colorful and crisp. The artist’s eye for juxtaposition, texture, and color effectively bridge the past and present to capture the complexities of this little-known city. Throughout the series, Khan grapples with her relationship to Rampur, a place she never knew despite her family ties.
About the Artist
Photographer Tira Khan is based in Newton, Massachusetts. She began her career as a writer, working as a staff reporter at daily newspapers. Khan’s work explores the meaning of family and the architecture of place, and she believes documentary photography is important as both art and historical record. She exhibits her work internationally in galleries, books, magazines, and festivals.
In 2022, Khan was Artist in Residence at the Boston Athenæum and documented the changing spaces of the library during its historic renovation.
Related Programming
Meet the Artist: A Conversation with Tira Khan & Laura Weinstein
Join photographer Tira Khan and Laura Weinstein, the Ananda Coomaraswamy Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for a spirited evening of questions and conversation. The two will discuss Khan’s series A Place I Never Knew (2019) that is currently on view on the Athenaeum’s first floor. This photographic series, ranging from sensitive portraits of residents to photographs of urban structures and homes, explores Rampur, India, a Muslim-majority city and the artist’s ancestral home.
