The Country Over My Shoulder
The Country Over My Shoulder
This series of portraits explores ethnic identity in British South Asian teenagers in London.
At an age when ideas of identity are questioned, these images portray the duality and possible tension that living between two distinct and sometimes conflicting cultures can create. Drawing from my own experience as a British Asian, the portraits are a personal exploration of how feelings of belonging and collective notions of ‘home’ may be passed from generation to generation.
Originally arranged into diptychs, each subject was photographed twice, once inside their parental home in ethnic clothing and once outside in western clothing. This aimed to echo the transience and fluidity of identity within this new hybrid demographic.
At an age when ideas of identity are questioned, these images portray the duality and possible tension that living between two distinct and sometimes conflicting cultures can create. Drawing from my own experience as a British Asian, the portraits are a personal exploration of how feelings of belonging and collective notions of ‘home’ may be passed from generation to generation.
Originally arranged into diptychs, each subject was photographed twice, once inside their parental home in ethnic clothing and once outside in western clothing. This aimed to echo the transience and fluidity of identity within this new hybrid demographic.