A N E E S A D AW O O J E E B E YO N D A F E L LO W S H I P
Beyond a Fellowship When creating a body of work, the final result may still only be a distant vision. As the journey begins, everyday experiences can unknowingly start to define our ideas and reveal a more profound purpose we didn’t initially set out to reach. For Aneesa Dawoojee, her recent BIPP Fellowship panel demonstrated just this, as a project photographing her local Muay Thai gym finished exploring subjects rooted deeply within herself and her community.
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escribing her panel, Aneesa says, “This is a piece of work on life, humanity, cultural diversity and belonging. A community of individuals in South London who do not see colour, but are united by other commonalities, such as the love of sport, finding a family, loss, trauma and hardships”.
Born to immigrant parents, Aneesa says, “Immigrant family history can be complex, and many tend not to overshare, so whilst we have a lot of strength and spirit on the outside, there is a lot of pain in the heart that stays inside. This is part of the drive behind my photographs.”
Portraying organic and authentic accounts of people was essential to the project; therefore, building a genuine connection with her subjects became a vital part of the process. The common thread was Muay Thai, an ancient martial art originating from Thailand. Amongst the raw brutality of the combat, the sport promotes honour and respect between opponents through ceremonial traditions displayed at fights.
“For me, this project was a necessity to show unity through emotion. My mentors saw my inner struggles and difficulty to express my true self. Two of them suggested that a personal project to express myself visually might help, and without fully realising it, this project unfolded from work I was already creating. This whole process was like therapy, and it brought me even closer to my immediate community”.
Growing up in Lambeth, South London, Aneesa practised Muay Thai from an early age, initially as a form of self-defence; however, the gym would become a place of belonging, as it did for the people in her photographs.
She say’s that her “practice of representing disadvantaged and underrepresented people in previous roles enabled me to ask the type of questions to help clients to expose a rawness about themselves.”
Behind the ‘fighter’ persona, social, cultural and political commonalities further relate Aneesa to her subjects, which became ignited after the tragic death of George Floyd, “BLM affected everyone in the panel differently. My work significantly changed at this juncture. The nature of the shoots went from joyous or action fight shots to more softer, subtle non-verbal language.”
Before becoming a photographer, Aneesa studied History and Politics, and then Conflict Resolution and Mediation as a postgraduate. After leaving education, she spent most of her career with a homeless charity, Alone in London, where she first picked up a camera. “I started photographing images for the annual and quarterly reports after wanting to change the stereotypical photographs showing young people in doorways looking depressed.”
“Lambeth is one of the most diverse boroughs in London. There are more people from multi-cutural and mixed-heritage backgorunds in this panel because of the way immigrants arrived historically into the area.”
Instead, Aneesa captured people acting naturally and worked towards changing the negative visual narratives connected to homelessness, “The psychology continue page 54
52 the PHOTOGRAPHER / 2021 / Issue Three
