The Last Mile of a Journey to Britain
After 30 years of living in London, British photographer Kavi Pujara returned to his native town of Leicester and tried to reconnect with the city, by photographing its “Golden Mile”.
In the 1970, when Kavi Pujara used to visit his grandmother on Golden Mile, an area mostly inhabited by families of Indian descent, overt and violent acts of racism were commonplace. Decades later, photography gave him the opportunity to reconnect with a community he used to be part of but didn’t know any longer, grappling with questions of identity and integration.
“This Golden Mile is not about the one-mile stretch of Melton Road that turns into Belgrave Road with its sari shops, Indian restaurants and jewellers. It’s about the arteries and veins that come from it, giving life to the parts of the neighbourhood away from the central commercial thoroughfare. This Golden Mile exists in the poetry of homes, temples and street corners;(...) This Golden Mile is both an entry point and an ending, the last mile of a long journey to Britain.”
The exhibition “This Golden Mile” is on view at the Martin Parr Foundation until December 18. The homonymous book is published by Setanta Books and available at the price of 50$.
