Make it look real

A local photo studio in Pakistan serves as a vibrant cultural hub where personal dreams and community connections are brought to life through photography. “Make it look real,” the clients of a photo studio in Pakistan urge the photographer. They want a photo of themselves with girls, and preferably holding a gun or sitting on a motorcycle, even though they have none of these things. In a sense, these studios are selling a lie, but at the same time, the photos bring to light the dreams and ambitions of their clients. 

Photojournalist and director, a displaced native, Danial Shah, focuses on the fake to reveal the real. Partnering with Sakhi, a photographer yearning for a life abroad, they explore the aesthetics and economics of image-making shaped by socio-political influences and social class. One earns his living by making fake photos, the other sells realistic news photos to US newspapers such as The New York Times. Although the photographers and the filmmaker relate to reality in opposite ways, the boundaries between them begin to blur.