--- description: Photographers Sebastian Liste and Asim Rafiqui have joined the Amsterdam-based Noor photo agency, TIME can reveal title: NOOR Welcomes Sebastian Liste and Asim Rafiqui image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt96823b5db7e7639c/6987e7fd8e0601db2a45dc71/002venezuela_lightbox.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # NOOR Welcomes Sebastian Liste and Asim Rafiqui by [Olivier Laurent](/author/olivier-laurent/) ## Olivier Laurent Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 1, 2014 1:17 PM CUT  The following photographs were taken at the Vista Hermosa prison in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela in March and April 2013\. A general view of the Vista Hermosa prison. On the left is a mural with the chief of the prison, inmate Wilmer Brizuela. The following photographs were taken at the Vista Hermosa prison in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela in March and April 2013\. A general view of the Vista Hermosa prison. On the left is a mural with the chief of the prison, inmate Wilmer Brizuela.Sebastian Liste—NOOR by [Olivier Laurent](/author/olivier-laurent/) ## Olivier Laurent Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 1, 2014 1:17 PM CUT The Netherlands-based photo collective, NOOR, recently welcomed two photographers — Sebastian Liste and Asim Rafiqui — to its roster, signaling a desire to add fresh coverage on a range of under-reported local issues, from South America to Pakistan, India and across Africa. The two new associate members join NOOR’s 10 current photographers: Nina Berman, Pep Bonet, Andrea Bruce, Alixandra Fazzina, Stanley Greene, Yuri Kozyrev, Benedicte Kurzen, Kadir van Lohuizen, Jon Lowenstein and Francesco Zizola. Liste, a Spanish photographer and recent TIME contributor who divides his time between his home country and Brazil, joins from the Reportage by Getty Images agency, where he spent the last three years. But Liste’s relationship with NOOR (a word that means “light” in Arabic) started four years ago when he first met Pep Bonet, one of the agency’s founding members. “I had just started working on my Urban Quilombo project and he was very passionate about it. He helped a lot with edits and he advised me.” The following year, he met another NOOR member – Francesco Zizola – who, he says, also took a particular interest in the work. “Every year, they’d tell me they wanted me at NOOR, but I didn’t feel ready,” the 29-year-old explains. “I didn’t have the experience, and I didn’t feel I could add something to the agency. I needed a period of time to understand what’s going on in the industry, how it’s changing.” Last month, NOOR tried again. “They wrote me these amazing letters, asking me to join. And I just thought: ‘Why not? Maybe now is the right time.’” For Liste, joining NOOR is about finding a structure where he can develop his life-long projects. “The most important thing for me is not how to make money but, instead, how to approach long-term projects,” Liste tells TIME. “I wanted to work with a small community of photographers. I needed a place that trusted my work and did something about it. NOOR is a place where you can put all of your energy and be part of a group where you can grow your ideas. I can’t think of many collectives and agencies that can do that.” While Liste’s approach to photography is similar to many of NOOR’s members, Asim Rafiqui’s isn’t. For the past eight years, the 48-year-old Pakistani photographer has worked on the fringes of traditional photojournalism. “I’ve been pursuing very personal projects,” he tells TIME. “I’ve worked with different publications, but that’s never been my focus. My goal has always been to create complex work.” For example, in _The Idea of India_, Rafiqui challenged notions that Hindus, Muslims and Christians are “oppositional groups, irreconcilably pitted against one another,” he writes on his website. “India’s actual, lived experiences suggests a long history of religious exchange and accommodation and a resistance to ideologies that impose a uniform, high culture on a society where once nearly all its people lived a vernacular culture.” For Rafiqui, journalists and photographers have a responsibility to combat these stereotypes, especially when they approach projects in Africa and Asia. “My struggle has been to argue and explain that history is not a series of breaks – \[but instead that\] history continues,” he says. “We are living through the post-colonial era and we retain many of these colonialist and Orientalist cultures within our own countries.” For example, [on his blog, _The Spinning Head_](http://www.asimrafiqui.com/tsh/ "undefined"), Rafiqui has been particularly critical of Western NGOs, which, he tells TIME, still employ colonialist arguments and philosophies. “In the last decades of colonialism, \[when new nations were born\] the discourse very much became about saving the natives from their backwardness – that they weren’t ready, that they needed help. It was all about humanitarianism. I think that we don’t understand where a lot of today’s discourses come from and the politics behind them, and I try to speak against the language NGOs use today.” When photographers work closely with NGOs, Rafiqui explains, they have to take into consideration the historical and political baggage these organisations bring with them. Instead, photographers should allow for the political, social and economic histories of the nations they visit to come to light. “In these countries, there are local actors, but I repeatedly find that these voices, these characters are removed \[from photographers’ stories\],” he says. “It’s about realizing that you are arriving, living and breathing in complex worlds. It’s about taking the time to get involved in these worlds, instead of simply claiming that you’re going to save them because they can’t save themselves.” Rafiqui also argues that mainstream photojournalism is European- and American-centric. “It remains the most influential space because what appears at World Press Photo or in TIME influences tens of thousands of photographers across the globe,” which leads, for example, to South Asian photographers repeating — in terms of aesthetics and narrative construction — the same stories they see in the Western media. “There are other voices and perspectives that are missing from the debate,” Rafiqui asserts. “At NOOR, there are people who already think like that,” Rafiqui adds, “and I think \[by selecting me\] they are trying to highlight this. But I don’t want to make them speak like me. Instead, I can maybe challenge them with a perspective that they might not be able to get from someone else. I also want to be pushed by a very intelligent group of people who have very different ways of working and very different ideologies.” --- [**_Sebastián Liste_**](http://www.sebastianliste.com/ "undefined") _is a Brazil-based photographer represented by_ [_Noor_](http://noorimages.com/ "undefined")_. In September 2012, he_ [_received the Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography_](http://lightbox.time.com/2012/09/06/getty-awards-80000-to-four-photojournalists-at-perpignan/#1 "undefined") _and the_ _City of Perpignan_ _Rémi Ochlik Award. LightBox previously published Liste’s work documenting_ [_the community living in an abandoned chocolate factory_](http://lightbox.time.com/2012/09/07/the-abandoned-chocolate-factory-by-sebastian-liste/#1 "undefined") _and_ [_Brazil’s love for football ahead of the 2014 World Cup_](http://lightbox.time.com/2014/06/12/photos-world-cup-brazil-fans/ "undefined")_. Follow him on Twitter_ [_@SebastianListe_](https://twitter.com/SebastianListe "undefined")_._ [**_Asim Rafiqui_**](http://asimrafiqui.photoshelter.com "undefined") _is a Pakistani photographer represented by_ [_Noor_](http://noorimages.com "undefined")_. He’s currently based in Kigali, Rwanda, and regularly writes on his blog,_ [_The Spinning Head_](http://www.asimrafiqui.com/tsh/ "undefined")_._ [**_Noor_**](http://noorimages.com "undefined")_is an Amsterdam-based collective of photojournalists and documentary photographers._ **_Olivier Laurent_** _is the editor of TIME LightBox. Follow him on_ [_Twitter_](http://twitter.com/olivierclaurent "undefined") _and_ [_Instagram_](http://instagram.com/olivierclaurent "undefined") _@olivierclaurent._ ---  Prisoner: Amanatullah Ali | Subject: Abdul Razzaq, Brother Asim Rafiqui—NOOR  Prisoner: Amanatullah Ali Asim Rafiqui—NOOR  Prisoner: Amanatullah Ali | Subject: Ameena Ali, Wife Asim Rafiqui—NOOR  Prisoner: Amanatullah Ali | Subject: Zaid Amanatullah, Son Asim Rafiqui—NOOR  Prisoner: Amanatullah Ali | Subject: Zulfiqar Ali, Brother Asim Rafiqui—NOOR  Prisoner: Paizoo Khan | Subject: Khatima, Daughter Asim Rafiqui—NOOR  Prisoner: Paizoo Khan | Subject: Mohammad Islam, Brother Asim Rafiqui—NOOR  Prisoner: Paizoo Khan | Subject: Sharafatullah, Son Asim Rafiqui—NOOR  Prisoner: Hamidullah Khan Asim Rafiqui—NOOR  Prisoner: Hamidullah Khan | Subject: Mother Asim Rafiqui—NOOR  The following photographs were taken at the Vista Hermosa prison in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela in March and April 2013\. A general view of the Vista Hermosa prison. On the left is a mural with the chief of the prison, inmate Wilmer Brizuela. Sebastian Liste—NOOR  Drug users and those who violate the unwritten rules imposed by the inmates who control Vista Hermosa are confined to one area known as La Guerrilla. Sebastian Liste—NOOR  Prisoners preparing pipes used to smoke crack cocaine. Sebastian Liste—NOOR  Inmates in La Guerrilla. Sebastian Liste—NOOR  A member of the carro, the group of inmates who control the prison, during a routine patrol. Sebastian Liste—NOOR  Family visitors during a celebration in the prison. In September 2008, family overnights were instituted as part of the Prison Humanization Plan, which sought to reduce conflict in the prisons and restore inmates' rights. Sebastian Liste—NOOR  Inmates dance with girls during a weekend visit. In the background, an armed member of the carro keeps watch. Sebastian Liste—NOOR  Inmates sleeping on the rooftop of the prison. The Vista Hermosa prison was built for 650 inmates, but currently holds more than 1400. Sebastian Liste—NOOR  Prisoners make a blood strike on the roof to demand their transport to the capital city, Caracas. Sebastian Liste—NOOR  Gay inmates run the prison laundry and are otherwise confined to their quarters, but don’t fear harassment. Ezekiel, alias Maritza, hopes to be a model one day. 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