Book of the Month: This Golden Mile
Book of the Month: This Golden Mile
Kavi Pujara
October 11, 2022
Bhukan Singh and Gurmeet Kaur, 2021
The photographer (born 1972) grew up very close to the so-called Golden Mile: a segment of road where the Indian community has established their centre. Even so, this photo book does not deal exclusively with the mile-long section of Melton Road, that merges into Belgrave Road with its sari shops, Indian restaurants and jewellers. The typical atmosphere is found a little bit further: “It’s about the arteries and veins that come from it, giving life to parts of the neighbourhood away from the central commercial thoroughfare. This Golden Mile exists in the poetry of homes, temples and street corners; it’s down the alleys and through the gaps in steel fencing leading to crumbling industrial plots. This Golden Mile is both an entry point and an ending, the last mile of a long journey to Britain.”
In 2016, the photographer returned to the district with his own family and began to take pictures, to reconnect with the city, its inhabitants and his own past. During his childhood, racism was part of everyday normality: he was spat on, chased by the National Front, insulted and called me "Wog" or a "Paki", and told to “go back home”. As soon as he turned 18, he moved to London without looking back.
Pujara's personal explorations took place during a period of social upheaval – just a few weeks after his return, following a referendum on the EU, the United Kingdom decided to begin Brexit, and in 2020 the conservative government brought in reforms to the immigration laws. The photographer quickly realised that the personal and the political belong together, “…but it was impossible to ignore the societal turn toward anti-immigrant populism.” Pujara hopes that the book he has just published may contribute towards the immigration discussion.
Pujara worked in large-format and using a tripod: “This helped me slow down, talk to people and, to a degree, dictate the aesthetics of images I could make,” he explains. His series is much more than just a personal return; if you look a bit closer, it exemplifies all immigrant communities in transformation.
Kavi Pujara: This Golden Mile
116 pages, 57 colour images
22 x 26.5 cm English and Gujarati
Setanta Books
Kavi Pujara+-
...was born in Leicester in 1972 and works as a film editor for the BBC, in addition to doing personal, independent, long-term documentary photo projects. His work has been included in the touring group exhibition Facing Britain. British documentary photography since the 1960s, which has been exhibited at the Museum for Photography, Krakow, Poland, the Mönchehaus Museum Goslar, Germany and the Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Germany. Pujara was one of the winners of the British Journal of Photography, Portrait of Britain 2020, and recipient of a Martin Parr Foundation photographic bursary in 2020. Two portraits from This Golden Mile have been selected for the National Portrait Gallery’s Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2022 exhibition. The accompanying exhibition will be presented at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol until 18 December. This Golden Mile will be his first solo exhibition and his first monograph. More
Bhukan Singh and Gurmeet Kaur, 2021
Boy with the Union flag, Hildyard Road, 2021
Chandni with flowers, Community Garden, 2021
Kitchen, Marjorie Street, 2022
Talitha, Ross Walk, 2019
Neighbours, Dundonald Road, 2018
Front room, Halkin Street, 2021
Sewing machine, Moria Street, 2021
Haresh und Hashik, Syston Street, 2021
Curzonia Knitwear, Curzon Street, 2020