A Photo Mosaic

AZAADI

آزادی

A dove built from photographs of people and communities around the world — and a shared human desire for dignity and peace.

230 Photographs 7 Communities Rawalpindi 2021 8 Iterations
Azaadi — a dove made from 230 photographs of freedom movements
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Doves in Rawalpindi, 2021 — the source photograph

Rawalpindi, 2021 — the photograph that became the template.

The Origin

A Photograph,
A Concept,
A Mosaic

"The interesting part? They would come back on their own during Maghrib. No one forced them. They just knew."

Back in 2021, when COVID was finally subsiding in Pakistan, I took this photograph in Rawalpindi. There was a small room that acted as a cage for doves. The owner would open it once a day and let them roam free. I stood there watching them fly out into the open sky, knowing they would return when the sun set. In that moment, I realized that freedom is not just about leaving a space, but about having the ability to live fully, even if only for a while.

So when I had to make a photo mosaic, I knew exactly what I wanted. A dove, built from photographs of people and communities around the world. These images are not about taking a political stance or supporting any specific cause. Instead, they reflect a shared human experience — the desire for safety, dignity, and a better quality of life.

Freedom is not only independence. It is the right to live with dignity, opportunity, and peace.

The Dataset

Seven
Communities230 photographs of human experience

230
01 — Palestine
Palestine
West Bank · Gaza · 1948–
Images of land, people, and culture — a community with a deep connection to place and a long history of resilience.
~30photographs
02 — Balochistan
Balochistan
South-West Pakistan · 1948–
A region rich in landscape and cultural identity. These photographs document its people, traditions, and way of life.
~30photographs
03 — Kashmir
Kashmir
Himalayan Valley · 1947–
A valley of extraordinary beauty and cultural depth. These images capture its landscapes, people, and everyday life.
~30photographs
04 — Rohingya
Rohingya
Arakan / Myanmar · 1982–
A community that has faced significant displacement. These photographs document their faces, stories, and search for stability.
~30photographs
05 — Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter
United States · 2013–
A global movement centred on human dignity and equality. Images of people coming together to call for a fairer world.
~30photographs
06 — South Africa
South Africa
Apartheid Era · 1948–1994
A country that underwent profound social transformation. These images reflect its history, its people, and what that change meant for everyday life.
~30photographs
07 — Sudan
Sudan
Northeast Africa · 2018–
A nation navigating a period of significant change. These photographs focus on the people — their resilience, community, and daily lives.
~30photographs

Eight Iterations

The Processfrom a blur to a dove

Each version taught something the code alone couldn't explain.

v1
The First Attempt
downsample 20k = 225×25

"Too blocky and pixelated. Barely a dove. The high downsample rate meant not enough tiles to capture any detail."

Too few tiles
v1
v2
v2
Adding Detail
downsample 10k = 225×25

"Wings started to show. The doorframe became visible. Roughly four times the tiles — a significant improvement."

Significant improvement
v3
Testing k Value
downsample 10k = 525×25

"A mistake. The dove's head lost clarity. More variety was not what I needed — I needed accuracy."

Muddy, k too high
v3
v4
v4
Bigger Thumbnails
downsample 10k = 250×50

"The dove disappeared. Larger tiles meant fewer of them — less resolution. A trade-off I hadn't appreciated."

Shape lost entirely
v5
Even More Randomness
downsample 10k = 1025×25

"Worse. With k=10, only 10% chance of the best match per pixel. Confirmed: keep k low."

Noisy — hypothesis confirmed
v5
v6
v6
Finding the Balance
downsample 5k = 225×25

"This felt right. Clearly visible mosaic structure. Wings, the light beam — all there. Four times the tiles of v2."

The breakthrough
v7
Grayscale Experiment
downsample 5k = 2Mode: L

"Flat and lifeless. Colour carried meaning — blue protest skies, flags, fire. Removing it removed a layer of truth."

Colour is meaning
v7
v8 — final
v8
Removing Randomness
downsample 5k = 2pick = 0

"Always pick the closest colour match. One line changed. Noticeable difference in clarity, sharpness, and balance. The art piece."

★ Final — The Art Piece

What I Learned

Four
Discoveries

Small parameter tweaks produced most of the quality difference.

01

The Downsample Rate Is Everything

Starting with a downsample rate of 20 on a 3648×2048px image completely wiped out the detail. Not enough tiles to capture the dove's shape. Lowering step by step — 20 → 10 → 5 — finally brought the structure back.

The quality of a mosaic lives in its resolution. Start low, go lower.
02

More Randomness Means Less Accuracy

The k parameter selects how many colour matches to randomly pick from. Higher k = more variety — I thought better. Wrong. With k=10 there's only a 10% chance of the best match per pixel. The image becomes noisy and unclear.

For a recognisable output, keep k=2 and let colour matching do its job.
03

Tile Size Is a Trade-off

Larger tiles (50×50px) make the protest images more legible individually — which matters for the message. But they reduce overall resolution and destroy the shape. 25×25 was the sweet spot: visible enough, small enough to hold the form.

Legibility of the tiles vs. legibility of the whole. Both matter.
04

Colour Is Not Optional — It's Meaning

The grayscale test (v7) looked flat and lifeless. Blue protest skies, the white of the dove, warm tones of fire and flags — all part of the visual language. Removing colour removed a layer of meaning.

In activist imagery, colour carries politics. Don't strip it.

The Final Piece

Azaadi

Version 8 — Freedom Mosaic

Azaadi — Final photo mosaic. A dove assembled from 230 photographs of global freedom movements.

"Every tile is an image from a freedom movement, and together they form the dove of Azaadi."

230Source Images
25×25Tile Size
5Downsample Rate
pick=0Best Match Always
7Movements
آزادی

A Closing Thought

"When I look at the final piece now, I still see the dove I photographed in Rawalpindi in 2021 — but it has become something else. It is made from faces, landscapes, and moments from communities around the world, each one carrying its own story of what it means to live freely."

Those doves would fly out into the open sky each morning, and return at Maghrib — not because they were forced, but because they chose to. That image stayed with me. Freedom is not a single act. It is the quiet ability to simply be.

Azaadi — آزادی