Afghan girl born in Exile. Afghan Refuge Villa, Urghuch, North Pakistan, 1996.
Used by permission of the artist: courtesy PACE /MACGILL Gallery.

Cover artist, Fazal Sheikh, uses photographs to document people living in displaced and marginalized communities around the world. His principle medium is the portrait, although his work also encom- passes personal narratives, found photographs, archival material, sound, and his own written texts. He works from the conviction that a portrait is, as far as possible, an act of mutual engagement, and only through a long-term commitment to a place and to a community can a meaningful series of photographs be made. His overall aim is to contribute to a wider understanding of these groups, to respect them as individuals and to counter the ignorance and prejudice that often attaches to them.

Sheikh’s latest work, entitled The Erasure Trilogy (Steidl), explores the anguish caused by the loss of memory—by forgetting, amnesia, or suppression—and the resulting human desire to preserve memory, all seen through the prism of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sheikh’s work is shown internationally and he has won great recognition for his work, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2005.

See more of his astonishing work at www.fazalsheikh.org