We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mahnoor Nasir Khan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Mahnoor Nasir , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I, Mahnoor Nasir Khan, trace my resilience to the years I spent navigating the gap between who I was expected to be and who I felt called to become. Growing up between cultures, I learned early on that my voice and my vision would not always be understood — especially as a Pakistani woman pursuing a creative life in a field where representation was limited. That tension didn’t break me; it shaped me. It taught me how to hold my ground even when the world could not yet see what I was trying to build.
My resilience ultimately formed through art itself. Photography became the first space where I felt completely free — a place where intuition, emotion, and cultural memory could coexist without explanation. But becoming a professional artist meant pushing through obstacles that were far larger than technique: the doubt of others, the lack of resources, the pressure to follow more “traditional” paths, and the challenge of carving out a unique visual language in an oversaturated industry.
Every setback — every moment where I was told no, or told I should choose something “safer” — became a reason to work harder. The more resistance I faced, the clearer my purpose became. My resilience comes from refusing to let circumstances define my ceiling. It comes from choosing to keep creating even when no one is watching, to keep improving when no one is applauding, and to keep telling stories that deserve to be seen.
Today, that same resilience fuels every artistic decision I make. It’s what allows me to build a body of work that centers emotion, heritage, and the depth of human connection. It’s what enables me to step into new spaces with confidence — even if I am the only woman, the only immigrant, or the only South Asian creative in the room.
My resilience is not something I inherited fully formed. I built it, frame by frame, through the work I chose to make and the artist I insisted on becoming.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m Mahnoor Nasir Khan — a Pakistani-born visual artist currently based in Houston, Texas, whose practice explores the intersections of memory, identity, and emotion through alternative photographic processes. My work often serves as a conduit for unspoken narratives, metaphors of personal and collective histories, and emotional undercurrents we carry in silence.
What excites me most in my current practice is the physicality of the medium itself. I’m presently working on a new experimental series titled “Noor – The Light Within” — a deeply personal body of work that involves working with rare, over-a-century-old expired light-sensitive papers to create one-of-a-kind chemigrams and cyanotypes. Each piece is treated as a visual journal, layered with organic substances and time-intensive techniques. Many carry textures like scratches, tears, or embedded materials like milk and honey — all used as metaphors for internal scars, healing, nourishment, and hidden emotion. This series is a quiet yet powerful exploration of inner light and darkness, and its title is drawn from the meaning of my own name: Mahnoor — moonlight.
I hold an MFA in Photography from Long Island University and have shown my work internationally, including in New York, Spain, China, and Turkey, in both physical and virtual exhibitions. My work has received recognition from The Photography Gala Awards in Barcelona, including multiple Honorable Mentions in the Professional Fine Art category at the Julia Margaret Cameron and Pollux Awards
My photographs have been published in Vogue Italia’s PhotoVogue, Stem Magazine, Analog.Cafe, Emergent Art Space, and featured in curated exhibitions on platforms like Artsy, TheatreArtLife, and Second Street Gallery.
As I continue to evolve my process, I am focused on creating a space for dialogue — one that is visual, visceral, and often abstract. The work I make is slow, meditative, and analog in nature — a conscious resistance to the overwhelming pace of digital life, and a reclamation of time, space, and memory as artistic materials.
This next year, I look forward to sharing more from “Noor – The Light Within”, including limited-edition prints and potential exhibition opportunities. I hope this work can offer viewers a moment of introspection, just as it has offered me a journey inward.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Emotional Vulnerability & Courage in Storytelling
At the core of my practice is the ability to sit with emotional intensity. In my series “Cheekh” (The Scream), I confronted taboo narratives around suppressed female voices in South Asian communities. Through fragmented voices and blurred images, I gave space to emotions we’re often taught to hide — rage, grief, longing. I’ve learned that the deeper I allow myself to feel, the more universally the work resonates. Vulnerability, when paired with intention, becomes a tool for artistic transformation.
2. Deep Understanding of Alternative & Experimental Processes
My process often combines analog film, digital media, and historic darkroom techniques. I’m currently creating a body of work titled “Noor – The Light Within,” using over 100-year-old expired light-sensitive papers, natural substances like honey and milk, and developing them with my own hands in complete darkness. These pieces are unpredictable and irreproducible — visual maps of emotion, chemistry, and time. Mastering alternative processes has given me not only a unique voice but also a meditative, hands-on relationship with the medium itself.
3. Commitment to Cultural and Personal Truths
My practice draws deeply from lived experience and generational memory. Projects like “Lamhe” and “Loss, Lies & Lost” explore the intricacies of grief, longing, and feminine resilience — using layered imagery, archival materials, and abstract techniques to express what words cannot. I believe artists must listen deeply — to their roots, their inner voice, and the silences in between. Authenticity isn’t about aesthetics; it’s about responsibility.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
When I feel overwhelmed, I return to solitude—where most of my ideas are born and processed. Whether I’m filming abandoned railway stations (Station Stories), engaging with deep-rooted grief (Loss, Lies & Lost), or listening to the silent scream within (Cheekh), I find healing through stillness and observation. I don’t try to fix the chaos right away—I try to sit with it. Often, that reflection turns into art.
My practice lives in the in-between: between analog and digital, between personal pain and collective experience, between silence and sound. Creating gives me a space where I can process life’s contradictions, without needing to explain them. When I feel emotionally saturated, I write, I walk, I photograph—not for an audience, but to listen to myself again.
My advice: don’t run from overwhelm—walk beside it. Let it inform you. Not every season is meant for producing; some are for absorbing, grieving, or simply being. The art will come when you’re ready. And when it does, it’ll be honest.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mahnoorkhan.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noormnkphoto/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mahnoornasirkhanphotography/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahnoor-nasir-khan-34824ab0/
- Other: https://www.artsy.net/artist/mahnoor-nasir-khan
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
