Narratives of Immigration
Photographer Uzma Mohsin on capturing the immigrant Punjabis' dreams in the UK
I also shot old family albums, playing with time and geography. The whole process was multilayered because I have always been more interested in the art of capturing images rather than the images in isolation.” Uzma Mohsin, Photographer and recipient of Alkazi Foundation Documentary Photography and Photobook Grant 2017
She tells the story of an elderly Sikh settled in the UK who comes back to his small village in Punjab after decades. He is suffering from dementia. He goes for a walk one day and does not come back. Several days later, he is found in a small ashram and goes to die in his village. She also talks about a 40-something second generation Punjabi woman immigrant who ‘knows’ she has arrived. And that’s because like her male counterparts from the community in the UK, she now owns a fancy car.
On the wall of her series titled Love and Other Hurts (part of the exhibition Girl Gaze), there is a photograph of an old post card addressed to Kulwant Kaur which has been written by Surjit Kaur. In another frame is a Punjabi woman wearing a bright red overcoat, the shade of her lipstick matching her coat. Her head is covered. Then there is a brick house shot at night. And then there is a picture of a young Punjabi bride laughing.
For photographer Uzma Mohsin, commissioned by the Arts Council England in 2009 to go to Midlands near Birmingham to photograph the thriving Punjabi community there, it was a chance to relook at not only exile but also the connections of the immigrants to their land. She also toured Punjab later to understand new dimensions of the story. “It was important for me to see where they came from and feel the essence of the place that they had carried with them to the UK,” says Mohsin, who spent time in Jalandhar and Phagwara—areas that have traditionally witnessed mass exodus.
After meeting Punjabis in both the lands, the independent photographer noticed that the ones who lived far away held on to their cultural values but had a very dated idea of India. “They were oblivious to the changes in India over the years.”
While shooting different generations of migrants in the UK, 44-year-old Mohsin, who is now based in Delhi, gave her subjects cameras too and asked them to shoot whatever they wanted to. She then reloaded the films and shot above those frames to intermix narratives. “I also shot old family albums, playing with time and geography. It was important that the undertaking be multilayered in its truest meaning because I have always been more interested in the process of taking images rather than the images in isolation,” she says.
In her conversations centred around the idea of belonging, Mohsin, also a recipient of the prestigious Alkazi Foundation Documentary Photography and Photobook Grant 2017, says that her interactions with different generations of Punjabis there lent several insights. “The first generation tried hard to make sense of the alien culture. For them, it was all about hard labour and women staying at home. What is commendable is that they laid a lot of emphasis on educating their children. For the next generation, it was more complicated for they had to live a parallel and conflicted existence.” The photographer feels that for the third generation, there is greater integration with the UK culture. “They have lesser dichotomies,” she says, while showcasing her work during ‘Girl Gaze’, an exhibition brought to Chandigarh by Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi and Creative Black Country, UK.
Mohsin has always found the idea of 'home' fascinating. It's something she has constantly questioned.
For her assignment in the UK, the starting point was literature. Reading Sathnam Sanghera’s The Boy With the Topknot and Not Our Daughter! The True Story of a Daughter-in-law by Kalbir Bains and Meri Kahani by Gurmail Singh Bhamra, both based in Midlands inspired her. “I also met and interviewed both the writers in the Midlands,” says the author about the 12-month project that began in 2016 and was also supported by Multistory, Delhi Photo Festival and Nazar Foundation.