Among the 200 winning photographs selected for The British Journal of Photography’s Portrait of Britain, Maryam Wahid’s self-portrait was shot in Birmingham, home to one of the UK’s largest South Asian diaspora communities. Wahid’s a wedding photographer by day, but the image is part of a series, Women From the Pakistani Diaspora. Though Pakistani culture is far from monolithic, Wahid’s portrait series makes Pakistani women, their stories and the way the community has changed in Britain visible, exploring mixed heritage, religion, dress, architecture and self-expression and their intersection with individual identity. “I wanted to explore my identity and how women in my community have transformed and shaped the next generation of Pakistanis in Britain,” Wahid says.
