{"id":141396,"date":"2025-11-19T08:54:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T08:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/141396\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T08:54:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T08:54:13","slug":"friday-prayer-and-fish-and-chips-portraits-of-babajis-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/141396\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday prayer and fish and chips: portraits of Babaji\u2019s Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CherryCherry Bakewells, Angel Slices and Gulab Jamun, part of Babaji\u2019s Britain by Shizza Majeed. Photograph by Shizza Majeed<\/p>\n

Photography series by Shizza Majeed shows a Pakistani grandfather\u2019s life in London<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Shizza Majeed has seen her grandfather almost every day of her life, observing his quirks, learning about his interests and the habits that make him who he is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, the photographer embarked on a project in collaboration with her grandfather, Ghulam Abbas, as an act of preservation. Babaji\u2019s Britain<\/a> tells his personal story of belonging as a Pakistani man who moved to Britain in the 1960s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Abbas emigrated in 1962, aged 23, settling near High Wycombe before moving to the capital. He lives in east London<\/a>, just up the road from Majeed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day I was just watching him and I realised how much older he was getting, and that I would regret not spending this time doing something that I love with him,\u201d says Majeed of the motivations behind the photo series.<\/p>\n

Inspired by 18th-century portraiture, particularly William Hoare\u2019s Portrait of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo<\/a> (1733), Majeed set out to frame each photograph like a portrait painting, keeping the images minimal in composition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen an artist paints, they think carefully about every detail, visualising the final image. It\u2019s a slower, more deliberate process. In that same way, portraying my grandfather in this style feels like my own act of reclamation, a way of honouring his identity and presence through the language of art,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\"FishFish and Chips after Jummah. Photograph by Shizza Majeed<\/p>\n

She frequently returns to Hoare\u2019s painting. \u201cIt portrays a Muslim man of colour in a traditional European style of art, something rarely seen at the time. It feels like an act of reclamation, a dignified reimagining of presence within a space that once excluded people like him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, in Bajabi\u2019s Britain, Majeed tries to commemorate each aspect of her grandfather\u2019s identity, referencing his love of sports, food, prayer and gardening, merging his two identities as an immigrant in Britain.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, he was a little bit nervous, being the centre of attention, a little bit shy, but then he really got involved in how to pose, what you could do with different items or, you know, what clothes he wanted to wear,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s really when his voice came alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the photograph titled Cherry Bakewells, Angel Slices and Gulab Jamun, her grandfather sits next to a spread of Pakistani delicacies such as gulab jamun and jalebi. Above, Abbas hangs Union Jack bunting, the portrait referencing a British street party scene.<\/p>\n

\"AA Familiar Taste. Photograph by Shizza Majeed<\/p>\n

\u201cThe image isn\u2019t saying that he eats his own food because he doesn\u2019t want to embrace English food but, rather, it\u2019s about what he brings to the table, and what he brings into our family,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Many of the props chosen for the portraits feel playful, such as the contrasting shopping bags in A Familiar Taste, one of 200 images shortlisted for A Portrait of Britain 2025<\/a>. In this portrait,\u00a0Abbas holds fresh produce from a local Pakistani shop in one hand, and a shopping bag from Tesco in another \u2014 reflecting the daily reality for many Pakistani immigrants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In one image, we see Abbas\u2019s weekly ritual: his dedication to Islam and his love for fish and chips. \u201cHe always goes to the mosque on a Friday, and gets a bag of fish and chips or chicken and chips after. It\u2019s been like that since I was a kid,\u201d says Majeed.<\/p>\n

In Three Lions, the contrasting nations are at the forefront of the portrait, as Majeed chooses for her grandad to have the St George\u2019s flag draped around his back.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Three Lions. Photograph by Shizza Majeed<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not usual to go out on to the street and see a Pakistani man with the St George\u2019s flag wrapped around him. That\u2019s not something you see every day. I wanted the images to be humorous,\u201d she says, as \u201cthe St. George\u2019s flag has been weaponised to target a certain group.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The photograph, taken originally in June, drew additional significance in September with the appearance of British and English flags on streets across the country<\/a>. While supporters saw the display as an expression of national pride, many associated it with rising anti-immigrant rhetoric and racism.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than a reclamation of the flag to signify \u2018this is our flag\u2019, Three Lions is more an irony, drawing attention to Saint George being an immigrant himself,\u201d says Majeed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is the only image where he\u2019s not looking at the audience. \u201cHe\u2019s not looking at the viewer, because he doesn\u2019t need to tell the viewer he belongs here. He knows he belongs here, he knows he\u2019s British.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes against everything that the media says about Pakistanis, about Muslims and about immigrants in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

Majeed adds: \u201cI wanted this project to be lighthearted. It\u2019s showing my grandad\u2019s success story. He made the move when he was 23 and has no regrets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Majeed is a finalist in the 2025 Association of Photographers Emerging Talent Awards<\/a>. One of the portraits is on show as part of Autograph Gallery\u2019s outdoor display, Small Stories of Diasporic Experience<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cherry Bakewells, Angel Slices and Gulab Jamun, part of Babaji\u2019s Britain by Shizza Majeed. Photograph by Shizza Majeed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,438,146,85,46,442,338,87390,443,2711],"class_list":{"0":"post-141396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-il","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-london","17":"tag-pakistan","18":"tag-photo-essays","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}