Origin: Lahore, Pakistan
Currently Exhibiting in: New York City
Website: miraalzafar.com
Social Media: Instagram
Bio:
Miraal Zafar is a 24-year-old photographer based in New York, whose work delves into the complexities of the female gaze and the nuanced experiences of women across generations. Originally from Lahore, Pakistan, Zafar moved to the United States six years ago to pursue a degree in film and is currently completing her MFA at Parsons School of Design. Her photography, rooted in personal history and collective memory, focuses on documenting women within their spaces, capturing moments of intimacy, strength, and vulnerability at various stages of life.
Zafar’s practice is deeply personal yet universally resonant, blending storytelling with portraiture to explore themes of identity, migration, and matriarchal power. Through her lens, Zafar captures the subtleties of familial connections, grief, and resilience, creating visual narratives that challenge traditional power dynamics in portrait photography and present a collaborative exploration of the female experience.
Featured Artwork at Bushwick Gallery
My Grandparents
- Year of Creation: 2025
- Medium: 35mm Digital Print
- Dimensions: 24 x 17 inches
- Price: $800 USD
Description:
My Grandparents is a deeply intimate portrait capturing Zafar’s grandmother at her dressing table in the family’s ancestral home in Pakistan. The photograph, taken in the wake of her grandfather’s passing, reflects a pivotal moment in her grandmother’s life—the first time living alone after a life shaped by marriage and matriarchal responsibility. The act of putting on lipstick, a daily ritual, becomes a symbol of continuity amidst change, an anchor in the midst of loss and transformation.
The dressing table, unchanged over time, becomes a site of memory and resilience, holding echoes of past generations and childhood memories. Indexical photographs, standing quietly in the background, serve as markers of familial legacy. The warm tones and textured quality of the 35mm digital print enhance the sense of nostalgia, inviting viewers to reflect on their own familial ties and the role of ritual in maintaining identity and strength.
Exhibition Information
Exhibition Title: Love and Heartbreak: A Duality
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 13 / 6PM-8PM
Exhibition Dates: February 13 – February 20
Theme: Love and Heartbreak: A Duality explores the spectrum of emotions that define relationships and personal histories. Miraal Zafar’s My Grandparents fits seamlessly within this theme, offering a poignant depiction of love, grief, and resilience. By documenting her grandmother in a moment of quiet reflection, Zafar creates a visual narrative of familial love and loss, highlighting the ways in which life continues even in the wake of profound change.
Guided audio experience
For accessibility, the full video transcript is provided below for those who prefer to read or are unable to listen.
“There are moments when time bends—when absence feels louder than presence, when past and present seem to sit in the same room, breathing the same air. In My Grandparents, Miraal Zafar captures one of those moments, turning an everyday ritual into a meditation on love, loss, and the quiet resilience of memory.”
“A woman stands before a mirror, applying red lipstick. The gesture is careful, practiced—a ritual performed thousands of times before. And yet, in this moment, it holds a different weight. This is the first time she does it alone.”
“Zafar’s grandmother is framed within the warm glow of vanity lights, surrounded by familiar objects. The dressing table—cluttered with powders, brushes, a neatly folded lace cloth—remains unchanged, a silent witness to the decades that have passed in this space. But the mirror does not only reflect her image; it reflects time itself. Photographs of her late husband linger in the background, a quiet reminder that love does not leave—it only shifts.”
“The warmth of the film grain deepens the feeling of nostalgia, of a life lived and still unfolding. This is not just a portrait—it is a dialogue between past and present, between grief and continuity. In her grandmother’s poised expression, there is both heartbreak and determination. The act of getting ready, of maintaining small rituals, becomes an act of resilience, a way of holding onto oneself even as everything changes.”
“What are the rituals that anchor you? What objects, what gestures, keep your history alive? In My Grandparents, the echoes of love remain, even when the person is gone.”