In this episode, we talk with Arpita Shah about representing identity. Arpita talks about the process of working with participants on their own representation and how the photographer and participant may see the same photograph differently. She discusses her experience photographing her ill grandmother, the ethical considerations that involved, and the importance of transparency and dialogue with participants on the way they are represented. Arpita also describes how she explored the use of audio for a project and how participants responded differently to the medium. Lastly, she reflects on how her own background helps her to form a connection with the people she is photographing.What you’ll find inside:‘I think it’s something I’m learning from every time, and it changes. I think sometimes when you look back at work, there’s certain images of my grandmother that I really love as an artist and I know curators really like the image, but as an elderly South Asian woman I know she might not be comfortable with that image being shown. So just trying to navigate and learn around that.’ (4.40)On photographing an ill family member: ‘I was using metaphors of fragile flowers, or photographs that were crumbling. That’s how I worked around it but I absolutely understand. It’s difficult to approach it through the lens and so you have to be a little more creative and have more conversations around it.’ (7.23)‘I’m very fortunate but a lot of the time, the people I work with and photograph, because we’re exploring cultural identity and the meaning of home, I can identify a lot with that and they really know what my work’s about.’ (10.35)‘Being able to hear those sounds and drink tea, all these senses about home and displacement were being sparked up when you were listening. The photographs didn’t work at that point so I ended up doing something very different.’ (14.26)‘It’s something I’ve learnt from, and am still learning - what I’ve found is a lot of the time as a photograph when I take a photoshoot of somebody, the photograph they’re going to pick is always going to be very different to the one I’m going to pick.’ (15.28) ‘I think it’s very important ethically to be very transparent and clear on your role as a photographer but also always be open to input and feedback that the person you photograph had.’ (17.30)‘With the themes I explore in my work, there’s a shared experience and this kind of understanding that really helps me and the people I photograph connect.’ (22.16)‘I think it’s really hard because I’ve made work in the past that I really thought was a small project and it can end up, 15 years later, on a billboard somewhere and you just don’t know these things. You just have to think about protection all the time, protecting yourself as well, protecting the people you photograph and being really transparent.’ (24.03) What does photography ethics mean to Arpita?‘To be an ethical photographer is to accept your learning from experiences, that you’re learning and there isn’t a straight guide to how to be ethical. It’s based so much on what kind of genre you work in, what kind of photography you are, what your own methodologies are as a practitioner. But crucially it’s about being aware of the power you have as a photographer, being responsible and accountable for that trust that people are giving you when they allow you to photograph them, respecting that agreement, respecting them.’ (25.16)Links: Light Work and Autograph ABP Artist-in-residence programmeFòcas ScotlandStreet Level PhotoworksNaliniIn Sickness and in Health by Colin GrayCreative ScotlandPortraits of HomeAn LanntairCopan ChaiPurdah - The Sacred Cloth

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