History from below: photography and representation in a community archive

Join us for an informal panel discussion led by Fatima Rajina with photographers Paul Halliday and Mayar Akash, family archivist Tanbir Mirza-Baeg, and Hasina Zaman, activist/educator and sister of musicians Sam Zaman (State of Bengal) and Deedar Zaman (Asian Dub Foundation).

This event will explore the diverse perspectives captured within exhibition at Four Corners Gallery. Drawn from a new collection of over 4500 images, these photographs bring unseen voices to light, offering alternative ways of representing peoples' histories and their everyday lives. Speakers will consider issues of representation and self-representation in a community archive, and how it can promote 'history from below.'

Bios

Mayar Akash grew up on the Boundary estate near Spitalfields during the 1980s. His family was rehoused as part the housing campaign by the then Greater London Council (GLC). He attended the Boundary Community School afterschool set up by Abdul Mukit Chunu MBE and others to teach Bangla, and first learnt to use a camera. Later he was an active member of the Weavers Youth Forum, where he began photographing the organisations' activities. In this way he became a chronicler of his local community. As he says, this time and experience has shaped "who I am today".

Dr. Fatima Rajina is a Senior Legacy in Action Research Fellow at the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre at De Montfort University. A sociologist and social anthropologist, she completed an MA in Islamic Societies and Cultures at SOAS, followed by a PhD. Fatima's work looks at British Bangladeshi Muslims and their changing identifications and perceptions of dress and language. She specialises in the Bangladeshi community in the UK, with a focus on Tower Hamlets, Luton and Birmingham. Her book, British Bangladesh Muslims in the East End: The Changing Landscape of Dress and Language, will be published this summer (2024) with Manchester University Press.

Paul Halliday is a photographer, film-maker and urbanist who trained in photojournalism and fine art film. He did postgraduate studies in social anthropology, archaeology and art history at Goldsmiths College and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Paul's work focuses on urban and fine-art photography, documentary and fine art film, landscape and portraiture, urban ethnography, materialities and narratives of city life. Professional experience includes directing a Channel 4 documentary about the far-right in London and local government media consultancies. He is a former media adviser at the British Refugee Council.

Hasina Zaham grew up in Whitechapel in the mid 1970s. In the 1980s, she worked for various youth organisations and went on to work as a lecturer at Tower Hamlets College.In 2012 - 2022, she opened her own business, called Compassionate Funerals. Hasina loves all things adventurous and is currently training for London Trialthon, T100 and raising funds for https://www.cyclesisters.org.uk/ She is sister of the late Sam Zaman from State of Bengal and Deedar Zaman, rapper from ADF. She lives with her family in East London.

This is event is part of the Four Corners' current exhibition,

Photograph © Mayar Akash

Host or Publisher Four Corners