Faith in Transition
In a remote valley of Northwest Pakistan, Danish photographer Laura Riis documents a quiet transformation. Her project captures the personal and cultural complexities of religious conversion among the Kalash—a small indigenous community navigating the tension between ancestral traditions and Islam. Through tender, intimate portraits, Riis explores faith, identity, and the difficult choices faced by a new generation.
Photography Laura Riis
Set in Northwest Pakistan, this project explores the intimate reality of religious conversions within a small indigenous community, balancing animism and Islam. For centuries, the Kalash have lived in the remote Hindu Kush mountains, their traditions woven into rituals of dance, color, and fire. Yet, with the Muslim world as their long-standing neighbor, change has always been at the edge of their existence. For Kalash youth, growing up means navigating an identity shaped by both heritage and change.
In Islam, conversion is a one-way path: an irreversible commitment. Last year alone, 90 Kalash embraced the faith, part of a growing wave that has seen hundreds leave their ancestral beliefs, within a population of just 4,000. Conversion, for some, is a personal act of love or survival, offering relief and a sense of belonging to the majority. For others, it brings profound loss and disconnection.
For many, change begins at home. As it is often the parents who convert, the children find themselves at a crossroad; torn between ancestral customs, and Islamic practice. This shift is not just about faith, but about belonging, raising profound questions of continuity, choice, and the pressure to take sides. We experience the quiet tensions of youthhood, revealing the uncertainty of a generation navigating imposed change. Each image is a dialogue between past and present, where childhood, faith, and identity intersect in ways both personal, and universal.
“Conversion, for some, is a personal act of love or survival, offering relief and a sense of belonging to the majority. For others, it brings profound loss and disconnection.”
"Each image is a dialogue between past and present, where childhood, faith, and identity intersect in ways both personal, and universal."
About Laura
Laura Riis (b. 2002, Denmark) is a documentary photographer exploring community, religion, and societal change. She began her career photographing indigenous communities in Latin America and Pakistan before interning at Magnum Photos in Paris in 2024. With a background in cultural studies, she focuses on long-term projects that examine personal and collective transitions.
Having spent part of her childhood in India, she developed a deep curiosity for how people shape their identities and navigate faith, culture, and belonging. Her latest project explores religious conversion among young people, a subject she will continue to investigate for years to come. Through portraiture and environmental photography, she creates an intimate dialogue between past and present, offering a nuanced perspective on transformation within, and beyond the boundaries of tradition
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