Missing Peace/Piece is an exhibition featuring the work of photographers Hasnain Soomar, Masood Sarwer and Vishal Bhutani that began to come together in the time of the COVID 19 Pandemic. The exhibition looks critically at the search for the ‘missing piece’ of human existence that completes the puzzle of life. That sense of p­­­­­eace that has been shaken up to the level, where many people have either leaned heavily into their faith and spirituality, saying ‘I am safe as my God is kind and has taken care of me’, or have leaned away with a sense of disillusionment—‘Why is God punishing us?’

“It is extremely important that people use their beliefs in a way that makes them feel empowered and hopeful,” says Thomas Plante, PhD, a professor of psychology at Santa Clara University, “Because it can be remarkably helpful in terms of managing stress during times like these,” he writes of the period of the Pandemic that has been defined by the spread and devastation of the COVID 19 virus. 

In India, author Arundhati Roy writes, about the Pandemic as a Time Portal “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.” Reflecting upon these changes we look into the works of three interesting photographers who seem to draw their inspiration while looking again at ‘spirituality’. Hasnain Soomar, Masood Sewar and Vishal Bhutani have similar but separate view-finders that catch varied expressions when we are aligned to them.