EMBER: THROUGH HER TEARS
Yesterday, I visited EMBER, the photography exhibition by GMB Akash at Gallery 350.
There were many powerful images.
But one photograph refused to leave me.
A young woman. Looking straight into the camera.
Crying.
No dramatic setting. No elaborate composition. Just her face, her eyes, and a tear travelling slowly down her cheek.
I don’t know her story.
I don’t know what happened before that photograph was taken. I don’t know whether those tears came from grief, fear, exhaustion, anger or helplessness.
And perhaps that is why it affected me so deeply.
The photograph does not explain her pain.
It simply asks you to look at it.
Really look.
There is something uncomfortable about meeting the eyes of someone who is crying. In real life, we often look away. A photograph gives us no such escape. That moment remains there, frozen, waiting for us.
And as I stood before her, I started thinking about all the people we pass every day carrying tears we never see.
People who smile.
People who work.
People who say, I’m fine.
Maybe her face connected with me because there was no performance in it. No attempt to appear strong.
Only vulnerability.
And yet, somehow, enormous dignity.
The exhibition describes an ember as something that remains glowing after the flames have died down.
Looking at her, I understood the title.
Sometimes resilience is not standing tall.
Sometimes it is simply remaining.
Still breathing.
Still looking back at the world.
Still glowing.
I left Gallery yesterday.
But that photograph did not stay behind.
Even now, I can see her face.
And perhaps that is what a truly powerful photograph does.
You look at it for a few seconds.
Then, somehow,
it follows you home.
GMB Akash’s EMBER is on view at Gallery 350 until 15 October 2026.
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