Laila Nahar/Night Rain Press:
Face to Faith

Laila Nahar

Collaborator: Tanveer Khondker

When religion is reduced to an individual, when the religious rituals and categorizations are taken away, what remains in the heart of a pilgrim? What remains between a man and the god? Is it still of significance what the man is called or the God is named? The book attempts to understand and capture the sublime calmness and depth in the connection of a soul to the oneness. I was trying to grasp and capture what is there in the shades of faith in the pilgrims of the old city of Jerusalem. To me, I see familiar expression on every pilgrim’s face – on the western wall, inside the Dome of Rock and the Church of Holy Sepulchre. It was of deep faith, vulnerability of human existence and, lamenting the loss of ancient cause. By end of day, to me, all faces in the sacred sites of Christianity, Jewish and Islam became one – every pilgrim in the congregations or prayers was same to me. It is painful to conceive, for centuries, religions fight over the narratives of Jerusalem and the custody of its stones. The outside of the book stands as a wall depicting the walled city of Jerusalem while the inside of the accordion shows the pilgrims devoted into rituals from three religion.

Photographs, editing, sequencing: Laila Nahar
Book Concept and Book design: Laila Nahar, Tanveer Khondker
Texts: Tanveer Khondker, Laila Nahar, Scriptures and Psalms from The Torah, The Bible and The Quran
Language: English/Arabic/Hebrew
Self-Published
First Edition of 25 Hand-bound copies in Jan, 2025

Details of book-structure: The book comprises of two accordions which forms a wall with one opening. Close-up portraits of pilgrims of three different religion on the inside flaps of the accordion as it opens from both sides. The outside of the accordion depicts the walled city of Jerusalem using the photo collage of the religious sites. The joint of the accordion carries the scriptures from the Quran (Arabic), the Bible and the Torah (Hebrew).