A new art display in San Antonio sought to question conventional ideas about who a Muslim is and what religion represents to them.
Faces of Islam, an exhibition of portrait photographs highlighting the diversity of Muslims in Texas, was officially launched at the Dock Space Gallery on Lone Star Blvd. in San Antonio.
Ramin Samandari, the photographer, told FOX 26 that the project began amid a period of increased islamophobia and resulted in a sequence of similar projects.
"The idea for this project came about in 2016 after the Presidential election and all the anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from the former president," he said. "First I did the series on immigration which was funded and housed permanently at the Institute of Texan Culture. Next, I started the Faces of Islam project."
Samandari hoped to show the complexities of the city's Muslim population by photographing and surveying local Muslims.
In other words, he hoped to highlight the lives of average Texans who happen to be Muslim.
The exhibit will be on show at the Dock Space Gallery in San Antonio throughout September.
