Current Work: We are 3-D

Taking inspiration from the historic practice of manually colorizing black and white photographs in India due to the prohibitive cost of color film, I aim to celebrate and amplify the South Asian American experience. Using saturated, often vibrational color combinations, I evoke memories and unlock stories for families living in the diaspora. I also forge a connection between myself and the images, many of which are of my family, by making my own mark on them. 

My series We are 3-D explores new narratives using black and white imagery, collage and digital mixed media. I use black and white photographs from the 1930s to the 1980s to narrate my own family history as a second-generation American as well as other immigrant stories.

Much of our history is contained in photographs.  However, historical photographs can give the false impression that life in the past somehow lacked vibrancy.  My goal is to bring the images into the present to forge a closer audience connection with the subjects depicted.   

On a personal level, seeing images of my parents when they were just starting out makes me want to connect with that version of them so desperately—a dream of a daughter wanting to meet her parents again when they were young.  My current work arose out of that desire and my use of color is an attempt to jolt these images to life.

My work also challenges the notion that South Asian Americans are a monolithic group. We are not “worker bees” or “model minorities.”  We come from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds, with unique cultural, religious and linguistic traditions.  We have a variety of lived experiences and colorful personalities.  We are three-dimensional.