Tasnim Sara
Where I Am From,
We Need Calloused Feet

Tasnim Sara is a photographer and filmmaker from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is a storyteller who creates dimensionality by unifying the real with the make-believe. Through her exploration of the present moment combined with myth, she deeply understands the delicacy of the human form and its organic, innate relationship to the land. She prioritizes community and sovereignty and hopes to empower through her work. Viewing the erotic as a life force, that in the words of Ester Perel, can be an antidote for death. 

 

Tasnim earned a BFA in photography from Parsons School of Design and has exhibited at the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Gallery in New York City. Her first photo-book, The Image as Nutrition, released in 2022, explores the dualities of human existence—the feast and famine of life. Her new show, Where I Am From, We Need Calloused Feet, is an extraordinary ode to the high mountain deserts that raised her. Growing up in Northern New Mexico, with roots in Las Vegas, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque, Tasnim has always felt an aching sense of magic in the region. This has evolved into a photographic body of work that explores the magical realism flowing through Northern New Mexico.

 

Collaboration is of utmost importance to Tasnim in all aspects of her life. It is what most inspires her and makes her work feel valuable in the world. Visually, her work leans heavily towards documentary images that provide the space and time needed for people to reflect on themselves and their communities. Where I Am From, We Need Calloused Feet has been in the works for a long time. When asked about it, Tasnim said, “In this project, I have pushed myself technically to express the magic that is so palpable in our home in the North of NM. It's so important to me to provide a space and platform for stories to be told, visually and orally, and probably in other ways I can't imagine. I am creating images that touch on realism and then give them the fantastical twist that is embedded here. My documentation process aims to raise the voices and stories of the communities I come from, and I am excited to collaborate with others to further my engagement with the public.”

 

Magical realism has a long tradition in the arts, especially in literature and in Latin America, where it developed into what we recognize today. Using the lens of magical realism, with its complex culture, is a whimsical way to explore the communities and their stories that run deeply through the Land of Enchantment. The goal of this project is to uplift the stories of these communities and record them for future generations.

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The show will be up all week, August 16th-25th 2024, from 10am - 5 pm.

Join the artist herself for an opening celebration August 16th from 5-8pm.