Tami Aftab

0:00 [Applause]

0:08 thank you all so much thank you for coming and thank you it's nice that for having me my name is Tammy arub I'm a British Pakistani photographer born and raised in London I'm going to be talking mostly about this one piece of ongoing work with my dad but to briefly introduce my wider practice I work within fashion and portraiture both editorially and commercially so some of my clients include Vogue GQ cell McCartney Nike Rafa BMW and Atmos my work is often discussing themes of family intimacy memory and identity but the project I want to share with you today is my ongoing collaboration with my dad Tony so our project discusses his relationship with his illness specifically his short-term memory loss we've been making work together since 2018 starting as this project titled the dogs in the car my dad has an illness called Hydra cilis which is a buildup of fluid in the brain this causes migraines disorientation and blackouts so my dad grew up in Pakistan without any free health care and only got diagnosed with hydris when he moved to the UK at 19 years old once dad was diagnosed with hydris he started to get surgeries every few months to get that fluid manually drained until around 30 years ago when a new surgery was discovered this surgery put a shunt in Dad's brain allowing the fluid to drain itself but sadly an accident happened in the operation where they knocked and damaged a short-term memory therefore since I was born my dad has been living with short-term memory loss as a result since living with short-term memory loss dad has created cofi mechanisms such as the use of posted notes which inspired the title of the dogs in the car these are left all around the family house they on the fridge oven the front door wallet like on his hands everywhere these posted notes are usually small penciled notes that are only seen inside the home and end up in the bin most of the time.

2:04 And I really wanted to turn these messages on their head and put them in public spaces in a loud bold text when putting up this image you can see the dogs in the car I was standing on my dad's shoulders and I could see strangers expecting to read happy birthday or congratulations so when they read the dogs in the car there was a lot of confusion on their faces but I actually found that to be a really good reflection of the confusion in my dad's day-to-day life these notes set the tone of the images that we wanted to make something which doesn't fit into traditional Narrative of illness but instead discussed this idea of comedic relief and using humor as a way of coping and this was a fine line between this idea of mockery and humor and this is where collaboration was key a lot of the images are inspired by nuances of our day-to-day life.

2:55 So this image here is a memory of how dad put on a load of Shaving foam on his face and forgot to shave and went to tesos with a beard of foam or wearing a pile of hats because Dad has sensitive Scar Tissue on his head and he'll often buy hats he also likes the charity shop a lot and he'd come home with a new hat and I'd have to remind him he already has 20 of the same which you'd always deny but yeah he has many many of the same hat as you can see here since the dog's in the car this ongoing collaboration with my dad has taken different forms this project was for family portrait magazine and focused on Dad's long-term memory and his memories of childhood in laor such as bucket baths which he actually we have a bath and a shower but he will still use a bucket as a form of comfort to wash himself holding hand with his best friend and family down the street piling the whole family onto motorcycles and making and flying kites this project was an editorial so it meant we shot everything in one day which was very different way of working for us but Dad had very much enjoyed being dressed up by a stylists and also being on the cover of a magazine we've also done commissions together such as this project for its ni discussing if creativity can be a catalyst for Change and since Dad has ventured on a journey without me in modeling he's modeled for Primark Mr Porter Stone Island Expedia Thomas pink and this campaign with Johnny Walker Simone Ashley and diet parata if you can see his little scarred head but as someone who [Applause]

4:42 came as someone who came from a world so far from this and whose day-to-day job is still working part-time in a shop it's amazing to see him flourish into this New Found Love in front of the camera so if there are any casting directors in the room he's available and willing so alongside our photography Journey we've also been working together on my dad's Journey as a chef in 2018 at the same time we started taking images together we also started doing kitchen takeovers popups and markets in South London as a family under the name of safra's kitchen which is named after his mother.

5:15 So I'm excited to share that this year we have released our first our debut book kindly supported by we present and designed by Tom Booth wooder this rice the rice is on the hob is a photo book meets cookbook collaboration and for was like a perfect way to Mark the 5 years of taking images and making food together for the project dad and I went on a trip to his hometown of laor in the Punjabi province of Pakistan this was my first time in the city since I was 3 years old and my first time in Pakistan as an adult similarly to our project with family portrait magazine we wanted to focus on Dad's memories of childhood but this time specifically focusing on his relationship with food and memory as you can see we wanted the images to be a continuation of the dogs in the car so we Revisited this idea of the post note but instead of being hung around the Suburbia of Southwest London it was hung in spots around my dad's family home in lall a lot of the images were taken in and around dad's family home the town that he grew up in the streets are full of music and markets and kids playing and noise and a lot of Senses and one day we spent an afternoon in the alley behind my dad's child at home to take a series of portraits of strangers I had up a black piece of fabric on a fence set up my tripod I don't speak eru so I had to rely on my dad and my cousin Mar to ask pabb if I could take their portrait but to my surprise almost no one was a stranger because people would come up and realize it was my dad and hadn't seen him in in many years.

6:46 And this would be the family who he bought kitchen equipment from the man who fixed his watches his old doctor you know a kid who he'd play cricket with on the street who's grown up who are all offering us food and chai and we're really Keen to be part of the images and for each portrait we ask them what their favorite dishes and who cooks it for them every single person said a dish cooked by their parents even someone who was 80 years old and the large majority was Mom's Biryani when living in Pakistan my dad had no problems with his memory and hadn't yet been diagnosed with hydraphiles so it was very special to explore areas and moments from his long-term memory a time before his illness a time before he was a dad a time before moving to London we also continued to make performative portraits but this time they felt more collaborative than ever as I was having to take Dad's lead on his memories and where to shoot I think it's evident from these images that you're seeing how much dad's confidence has grown in front of the camera to this image depicts kitchen timers that are all over our family home.

7:49 But they are truthfully now amaz and Alexus.

7:54 But these are used as reminders in case he's gone upstairs having forgotten that the rice is on the hall or that something's in the oven despite now dad being a great chef when he came to England my mom said that he could only fry an egg and this is because growing up in Pakistan traditionally the women cook.

8:10 So he was never allowed in the kitchen when asking if he felt homesick when he left Pakistan he said that what he missed the most was his parents food he lived in houndo which has a huge South Asian and Pakistani Community but he didn't know how to cook any recipes at home so Dad learned to cook everything on the phone his mom learning the recipes of his childhood through her voice from the other side of the world and using his memories of the food from when he lived there for that reason the cookbook element of the rice on the hob is not paired with images of food but instead paired with handwritten memories of that dish from my dad's childhood the book ends with an interview conversation between my dad and I often we focus on the positives and I think it's really important for us in our relationship and for the work as you can see from him dressed up in posted notes humor is a key thing.

8:59 But I think it's also important to address that despite this dad still lives with short-term memory loss and living with a disability especially a hidden one is extremely difficult despite these images from all our projects looking like it's just dad and I on the shoot my friends and family are almost always behind the scenes in the image making process whether.

9:19 That's my Mom calling up with an idea or holding timers on a stick above his head my sister helping with lighting or friends helping with set design it's become a wider collaboration with the people around me me the Rices on the hob were shown a month ago at hav butches in dlon for my debut show and book launch dad sered pakoras and nesi cofs and we ended up with around hard to say but I think around 300 people coming by that evening every time I looked over to check that Dad was okay in this crowd of people he was talking and laughing with strangers offering them food and completely comfortable talking about his illness I think that's the biggest change over the Last 5 Years From then until now is Dad's confidence to discuss something that he was usually quite embarrassed about and quite shy with to the to the confident person he as you can see in these images now from helping with his daughter's university homework to signing his autograph in his own published book this project with Dad is ongoing and I'm not sure what shape it will take next but I'm excited to keep making work for years to come you can buy the rice on the hob from my website but also it is going to be in the in the stall area during the break um5 PS from each purchase is being donated to Muslim hands to rebuild houses that were destroyed in the 2022 Pakistani floods thank you for [Applause]

10:42 listening