BRAIDED | Sheetal Mallar

An intimate photobook looking at the relationship between the author, her mother and grandmother. Mallar's soft approach towards the story offers spaces of joy, love and self reflection as she slowly begins to understand who she becomes because of the women in her life. The book is an ode to the intergenerational intimacies shared by these women using photography, text and drawings. 

"I have been sitting with this work for a long time. I started working on it around 12 years ago. It’s been cathartic looking at relationships that has been at my core. This work is about the bonds we share with the women in our families and the roles they end up playing in shaping our lives. I believe it is a circle that's just as vulnerable, as it is strong. I started this work, as an attempt to reconnect back to them. I think I was hoping to find my way back home and to parts of myself that I had lost. I wanted to look at memory, loss, and ageing as a woman. The work became about revealing these layers. 

The book has images and sketches of my grandmother, our shared memories and the stories I have imagined of her childhood. The text interspersed through the work continues being an ongoing dialogue with me and my mom."

-Sheetal Mallar