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.


In Shah's words: "This was taken near the old port in Mombasa, when I visited Kenya for the first time in 2017 as part of this project. I’d grown up with hearing stories of my family’s time there, my grandmother would talk endlessly about the turquoise hues of Mombasa’s sea, so I wanted to capture it in this image to show her it still looked the same.

Water is a reoccurring theme in my work; in Hindu mythology it’s often a symbol for life and eternity, universally it’s often associated with fertility, nourishment and transformation. The sea is also a powerful and complex symbol for migration and voyages old and new, so I wanted to touch on all these themes in this image."