Spanning India, East Africa and the UK, Nalini explores the connected histories of Arpita Shah, her mother and her grandmother. Bringing contemporary portraits and still lifes together with family photographs and heirloom objects, the series traces the effects of migration, distance and loss across generations. Shah’s search through family archives and visits to places connected with her maternal ancestors led to new discoveries about their lives and relationships. The title is her grandmother’s name and the Sanskrit word for lotus. Flowers recur as offerings to the women in her family: the lotus symbolises femininity, fertility and rebirth, while bougainvillea connects memories of India and East Africa. Photographs of bodies, possessions and places bring these family histories together.


Arpita Shah has explained that "This is a hand-tinted portrait of my grandmother, which I’ve re-photographed with dried lotus flowers – almost like a shrine-like still life. The original photograph was taken in a studio in Mehmdabad, Gujarat in the 1950s.

Nalini is the Sanskrit word for lotus flower and in Hindu mythology it often symbolises the womb, femininity, the cycle of life and rebirth. In India and in various cultures, flowers are often used as garlands in various life events.

The lotus is a reoccurring theme in many of my projects and I often use it as a metaphor to evoke the experience of female displacement and the female life cycle. I wanted this portrait to be imbued with all these elements and to also reflect how sacred she is to me. Jāmbalī (purple) is also my grandmother’s favourite colour, so there are different shades of it throughout the series."