Karachi, 2008, near Empress Market
2008, printed 2014
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
inkjet print
Dimensions
image: 40.64 × 49.53 cm (16 × 19 1/2 in.) sheet: 58.42 × 67.31 cm (23 × 26 1/2 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Anonymous gift
Accession Number
2018.181.38
Art Historical Context
Leo Rubinfien's *Karachi, 2008, near Empress Market* captures the pulse of urban life in Pakistan's bustling port city. Taken in 2008 and printed as an inkjet in 2014, this exemplifies Rubinfien's mastery of street photography, honed through decades of travel across Asia. As an American photographer celebrated for his Guggenheim Fellowship-winning work, Rubinfien frames intimate human moments amid teeming crowds, revealing the subtle emotions and interactions that define public spaces. Near the historic Empress Market—a colonial-era landmark in Karachi since 1890—the image likely evokes the ma...
About the Artist
Leo Rubinfien
Leo Rubinfien, born in Chicago in 1953, spent much of his formative years in Japan, where his family lived starting in the early 1960s. This early immersion in Asian culture profoundly shaped his perspective on travel, urban life, and human intimacy amid exotic settings. He attended Reed College from 1970 to 1972, drawing inspiration from poet Gary Snyder and calligrapher Lloyd Reynolds, before pu...