Aaron Huey

Sufi shrine in the city of Multan, Pakistan

Aaron Huey grew up in a small town in Wyoming on the edge of a field that grew both beets and barley, alternating each year to enrich the soil quality. Huey escaped small town Wyoming only to find himself living in an old Communist apartment complex in Bratislava, Slovakia, where, at the age of 18, he studied as a Rotary Scholar. For his work on Pine Ridge Indian reservation he won second place from POYi and was shortlisted for the Alexia grant in addition to being featured at the Festival Visa in Perpignan. Aaron was named PDN’s top 30 emerging photographers in 2007 and was recently awarded a National Geographic Expedition Council Grant to hitchhike across Siberia.

About the Photograph:

“These images were taken during a month long trip through the shrines of Pakistan in 2006. I hope that these photographs can begin to balance out all the images of burning effigies, violent Anti-American protests, IED attacks, and suicide bombers, that consistently appear on the covers of our newspapers and magazines. These images over time, will become a window into a world of music, dance, poetry, and above all LOVE in Islam, something we rarely see in the western press.”

This essay begins in Pakistan and will expand through 2008 and 2009 to include a look at Sufism all over the world. Sufism, or Mystic Islam, is a school of Islam that transcends the division of Sunni and Shia, offering a message of Peace and Love through Music (Qawwali), dance the dervishes in their many forms, and poetry the poetry of Hafiz, Rumi, and countless others.