Khaula Jamil - The star behind the lens

Photojournalist. Documentary photographer. Faculty member at Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS), Karachi, Pakistan. Spear header of the ‘Humans of Karachi’ photography project. Writer. Businesswoman.

Khaula Jamil has many impressive notches in her belt.

She has been working as a journalist in Pakistan for the last six years but made her mark at quite an early stage of her career. Prior to entering the world of photojournalism, she graduated from IVS with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Design and has a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from Parsons School of Design, New York, USA.

Jamil first started working for an advertisement filmmaker as an art director in Karachi. "Ad films were never a part of what I wanted to do. I really wanted to get into making films, movies, and documentaries. I wanted to get into storytelling. Even though I love photography, I opted for the moving image instead."

However, Jamil wanted to do more. Do something bigger and better. Something that excited her. Something she wanted to do. "Twelve years ago, when I started working, your best bet was ad films, and I thought that wasn’t good enough. Making commercials, corporate ad films, a life where you’re working so hard to sell a product, just didn’t stick in with my sentiment."

That’s when she looked backwards and realized her love for photography had more potential than she thought. And photography is what she excelled at. "I felt like I needed some kind of structure, where I go back to school and get trained. So, I applied for a Fulbright scholarship, and when I got it, I knew it was a no-brainer that I wanted to do photography." She then left for New York and spent the next three years of her life exploring, studying, and travelling in the creative hub of the United States. "It was like a dream come true, and when I came back, I was motivated to actually do something."

However, it was not when she came back that she decided to become a photojournalist or a documentary photographer. When Jamil completed her master’s degree and was planning to come back to Pakistan, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Pakistan’s first Oscar award-winning and Emmy award-winning filmmaker and journalist, had come on everyone’s radar. "Before I even graduated, Sharmeen had won an Emmy, she had not won her Oscar yet. She was doing all that I was really interested in, making documentaries and telling stories. I heard she was going to open a film company, so, I started emailing her. I informed her that I was moving back to Pakistan and that I wanted to work with her."

Lady-luck smiled on Jamil when Chinoy responded and asked her to get in touch when she was back in Pakistan. "The first thing I did after I got off the plane was to email Sharmeen, informing her of my arrival in Karachi. I think she appreciated the enthusiasm because she asked to meet that same week."

And so, Jamil joined Chinoy’s non-profit organisation and went on to work there for a year as the creative manager for the new cultural department. And it was during this time, that she started her widely renowned photography project, ‘Humans of Karachi.’

Inspired by the ‘Humans of New York’ by Brandon Stanton, ‘Humans of Karachi’ organically started taking shape, and became a great way for Jamil to do what she loved, telling stories and photography. With this project, she started getting approached by various organisations, non-profits and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), to tell their stories. "I really took to that! It gave me the opportunity to work with different organisations, understand what they were doing, help them tell their stories, in my own way, and then build on my own features of photography from that."

In her opinion, it was a formula that had to work, however, there were a number of things which she had to figure out the hard way. For instance, giving the project a local angle was a bit more challenging than expected. "Brandon, at the end of the day, is in a first world country where you have all the freedom to approach anyone and strike up a conversation. But in Karachi, the ball game was completely different." The results were very different simply because the social fabric is completely different. "In New York, the people can actually formulate their words, describe their lives, simply because it’s something they have talked about."

However, despite the challenges, she enjoyed the experience. "It was discovering my city in very different ways, it was stereotypes breaking, all of which was very refreshing.”

After achieving so many milestones in her life, one wonders if there is something she still dreams to accomplish or somewhere she aspires to be. "I am just moving through my country and discovering all these various industries and getting to know the people in a way that I have not in the last couple of years. I’m in the dream job. I’m doing what I wanted to do many years ago. Now I’m doing it. You have to work towards this. Now I’m in it. The dream would change now.”

Jamil’s story gives us many invaluable lessons; to work hard, to inspire, to pursue passion, and to never give up. When life throws you a curve ball, hit it out of the park. The dedication is always worth it.

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