Growing up as a girl in New Delhi was daunting. From the moment we are old enough to understand, we begin to notice stories of violence and servitude.
We see them in movies, where harassment and abuse are romanticized. We see them at home, when our parents’ friends make jokes about women belonging in the kitchen.
We see them at school, when we’re taught to dress appropriately to avoid “tempting” the boys. We see them on the news, when a particularly cruel and brutal rape captures the media’s attention. Everywhere we go, there’s a man leering at us, unashamed.
As we grow, we find ways to resist. We travel in packs, we stand up to our teachers, we call out our uncles, we go out dancing, we wear the clothes we want to wear. We learn to unlearn until we have some semblance of an identity. For this project, I wanted to photograph my life and the lives of my friends as we grow out of our childhood. I wanted to capture our becoming.
Noor Kaur Randhawa is a visual artist from New Delhi and New York. Her work focuses on the experiences and emotions that shape individuals’ identities—those evolutionary stages of life that define who they become. [Official Website]
