As an artist of south-asian heritage, talking about ‘body positive’ in a public arena is considered radical. But I decided to do it anyway. :-) As a female photographer, and one that is particularly interested in portraiture, I feel a responsibility to convey an authentic interpretation of a subject, that satisfies us both.
In 2019, I collaborated for the first time with an artist from another genre. Bradford poet, Sharena Lee Satti, and I decided to bring our skill sets together to celebrate women from diverse backgrounds and body shapes, and invite them to submit three words as to why they loved their bodies. We both used their words to create a photography exhibition, and a moving poetry piece respectively, which launched at Kala Sangam in Bradford in January 2020. It was also the first time I started experimenting with different ways to display the work, the glass cylinders featured a collage of movement shots from the 58 ‘models’ that stood proudly on bespoke wooden display cases. Here are a small example of some of the portraits.
Enjoy. Shy
Please note, all the images are copyright protected by Shy Burhan and no usage rights are implied or allowed without express permission of the above…
