Early migrants Sarwan and Amro Dass with Kanta Dass on Inkerman St. Wolverhampton' c1961 ©BCVA/Apna Heritage Archive
Redeye's Photo Histories is a new strand of events that looks at some of the many histories that photography can uncover. The strand features photographers, archivists, scholars and historians exploring some of the lesser-known and under represented histories of photography.
For the first of our Photo Histories we are thrilled to welcome Anand Chhabra, who founded The Apna Heritage Archive in 2017. The project addressed an issue within Wolverhampton’s City’s archives; as recently as 2016 not a single image of the city's population of over 40,000 Punjabis was available. Over 2000 images were scanned and digitised from participants' family albums to ensure that the city’s archive is representative of the whole population of the city.
In this talk Anand will take us through the context of this post war period of migration, political opposition from local politicians in the Black Country, and the positive impact of the migration into the life of the city. The Apna Heritage Archive gives a valuable insight into the work, business, social life, traditional and cultural life of the Punjabi population and wider community of Wolverhampton.
Photo Histories are delivered in partnership with The Photographic Collections Network.
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Anand Chhabra is a co-founder, director and the incumbent Chair at Black Country Visual Arts (2014) and also co-founded ReFramed, the first Black & Asian photographers' network in the Midlands in 2020. Anand Chhabra’s photographic works centres on transnational migration, belonging, displacement, history, personal and archival memory.
In 2018 Anand was shortlisted for Magnum Foundation’s Photography in Collaboration: Migration and Religion and was nominated for Prix Pictet 2019 for his personal photographic work SUPNAA: Dreams of our Fathers. The work was recently exhibited during FORMAT ’21 Festival. Anand recently worked on Historic England’s project Picturing Lockdown in the Midlands as one of ten regional photographers in the UK responding to the Covid pandemic. As part of ReFramed on their first project (May 2020) Anand has been mentoring other BIPOC artists but also working to tell the stories of the Black & Asian community who have been disproportionately affected by Covid.
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Where?
Online! You will need an internet connection and a computer, smartphone or tablet.
This event takes place over Zoom. You are welcome to have your camera or mic on or off, and you can participate in the Q&A or simply spectate.
When?
Watch live on Wednesday 26th May, 7 - 8:30pm. Booking will close on Wednesday 26th May at 4pm and we will then be in touch with everyone who has registered with the meeting code and password.
Who is it for?
This event is free and open to all. You will need to make an account with us to register but you don't need to be a member. It will be an introduction to the project from Anand so if you would be interested come along! And take a look at the rest of the events in our Photo Histories series.
Tickets
Please register for free by 4pm on Wednesday 26th May to receive your invitation to the meeting.