Dark Victory: The Rise of Donald Trump

• Photographer
  Faisal Azam

This is the moment when the celebratory balloons began to fall, when Donald Trump accepted his party’s nomination for President of the United States at the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016. As an immigrant, a person of color, and a minority American from a Muslim background, it’s hard to look back at this photograph and not re-experience the sense of foreboding I felt when I clicked the shutter that day. For me, this photo, a picture of triumph, patriotic in pomp and color, represents history’s dark turn.

Faisal Azam is an award-winning film editor, writer and photographer based in New York City. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Faisal grew up in the Middle East, and immigrated to the United States at the age of 15, where he graduated magna cum laude from UC Berkeley with a degree in Rhetoric. For over a decade, Faisal has edited television documentaries and independent films, including Black Dog, Red Dog, produced by James Franco; Without Shepherds, which won the Grand Prize for Best Film at the Brooklyn Film Festival; and Salar, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award.