This series of photographs reflects on the human capacity to experience a sense of divine beauty and wonder within our modern dystopia. For many, it would not be hyperbolic to say that we have been living through a time that feels apocalyptic. We are being forced to grapple with some of the most extreme existential threats humankind has ever faced while, for the most part, going about our normal lives. This project explores the wide range of emotions that this state of mind brings about, and how this can be evoked visually. Although the South Asian population in the United States is relatively new, it has simultaneously evolved to be one of the most affluent minorities, with a substantial population settled in the suburbs.
Using the folklore of New England (a landscape incessantly represented by whiteness) as a quaint and ideal backdrop, "A Town In America" attempts to reinterpret traditional imagery of suburbia by inserting South Asian personalities. Acknowledging the birth and construction of the suburbs and subsequent white flight from cities to suburbs, this project also explores the rapidly changing demographics of suburbia and the intersection of minority status and privilege present in South Asian spaces.
The goal is to represent the “utopia” that the suburbs are often portrayed as, while acknowledging that its peace can oftentimes be complicated by requirements of assimilation and the idea of “The American Dream”. Through creating scenes that aren’t far off from the reality of the life South Asians live in the suburbs, I begin a dialogue about how, as minorities, South Asians hold a space of simultaneous privilege and invisibility.
