Being There

The image of Lt.-Col. Malali Kakar, then the high­est rank­ing woman in the Afghan police force, res­onates deeply. Surely it is the con­trast the burqa and the hand­gun, objects so often seen together but rarely com­bined, that makes this pho­to­graph. If only that were it only so.

This pro­file of Maya Deren is the first of a series of artist mini-biographies in the lead up to Bod­ies in Trou­ble, the sum­mer 2010 pho­tog­ra­phy exhi­bi­tion at Galerie SAW Gallery.