Photo Essay: Hajj through Maaria Lohiya’s eyes
The Indian-British photographer presents an intimate portrait of the pilgrimage and those who went on the journey alongside her
Maaria Lohiya still remembers some of the faces of the countless people she did Hajj alongside in 2017 — even those she didn’t photograph. The Indian-British photographer and film-maker recalls the pilgrims’ expressions of joy, their emotions as they stretched their hands to call on God. Although Lohiya, 31, has done Umrah five times since then, her Hajj experience has stayed with her.
“Hajj gives you the best opportunity to truly look inward,” Lohiya says. “In everyday life we define ourselves through jobs, relationships, identity — all these external things. Hajj strips that away.” Lohiya found the journey humbling. “With so many people, you kind of dissolve into the crowd.”
In her Hajj series and short film, The Hajj, she presents a compelling insight into the people who are making the journey, taking the viewer inside the pilgrimage.
“Nobody had really seen Hajj from the inside before, with every stage captured, and the smallest moments captured too,” she says. “You always saw the big aerial shots of the crowds, but not somebody actually inside the experience.”
This intimacy is reflected throughout her work. “If you’re not living it, how are you going to truly capture it?”
Lohiya’s photographs show moments of joy as friends complete the pilgrimage together, to the intimacy of individuals engaging in a private act of worship.
In one image, a group of men sit resting together in a moment of reflection, while other pilgrims continue on with their journey behind them.
“It comes back to that idea of that stillness being contentment. And the fact that your sole purpose being here is to worship Allah. Between prayer times, between the pilgrimage and the tawaf, all you have to do is be in your purest sense.”
Lohiya says it was an honour to photograph others on their journey. “I never walk around with a camera glued to my face. Usually there’s eye contact first, a little moment of connection,” she says.
Lohiya has since received messages from people telling her that the photographs inspired them to make the journey themselves.
“It brings to light the fact that what we do has an impact. It forces us not to ignore the fact that Allah has given me a gift, and I have a responsibility to fulfill it,” she says.
