Women in Uniform will be the stars of a new exhibition coming to Bradford Council-run Cartwright Hall.
The new exhibition which opens on 17 January and runs until 12 May, will feature photos of 84 women many from the Bradford district all taken by local photographer Shy Burhan.
The new exhibition which opens on 17 January and runs until 12 May, will feature photos of 84 women many from the Bradford district all taken by local photographer Shy Burhan.
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00:00 Hi, my name is Shai Bohan and I am here at the splendid Cartwright Hall today and I'd
00:08 like to introduce you to my Women in Uniform exhibition. So Women in Uniform is a celebration
00:15 of women of colour who work in industries where we're traditionally underrepresented.
00:21 The journey started in 2020 during the pandemic after the galvanisation of support for Black
00:27 Lives Matter, especially after the murder of George Floyd. I massively support the movement
00:32 and at a price that I was thinking, you know, there are people like me who work in industries
00:38 in a very professional context but why are we not seeing them? Where is the visibility
00:43 there? And when the movement had huge galvanisation of support I remember thinking, okay, I'm
00:50 really going to do a project now that supports women of colour and that celebrates and promotes
00:55 women of colour who work in industries where we're not traditionally represented. And so
01:00 yeah, it started in 2020 and I started to do research and development. I got a chunk
01:06 of Arts Council funding to find the right venues, to find the right project partners
01:10 and of course to find these incredible women. So for a year I spent a year finding these
01:16 amazing, amazing, really inspirational women and then the shooting started in June 2022
01:24 and then I shot right up until May 2023. The exhibition originally launched at the sumptuous
01:31 Howarth Art Gallery in Accrington on International Women's Day in March 2023 and then Bradford
01:39 Museum and Galleries saw it and invited me to have my exhibition here. So it's really
01:45 important to me that it's here. For me this is the pinnacle. Everything after this is
01:50 going to be a bonus. It doesn't matter if the New York Met invite me to have my exhibitions
01:55 or the National Portrait Gallery. And the reason for that is I'm from Bradford and I
01:59 believe that representation matters, especially in such a multicultural and diverse city like
02:04 Bradford. And a funny story is in Cartwright Hall I used to walk through the grounds of
02:11 Blister Park where Cartwright Hall is 30 years ago to go to my school, which is just down
02:17 the road there, and I used to walk through the park to and from school and I used to
02:21 visit this gallery during my free periods. And never in a million years did I imagine
02:26 that 30 years later that I would be asked to have my own exhibition here. So this for
02:32 me is the penultimate. Like I say, everything after this is a bonus. Anywhere I'm asked
02:36 to exhibit, this was the place that I've always wanted to exhibit. So after this I
02:40 can, you know, I can retire basically. And it's really important in terms of representation.
02:46 Having grown up around here, I remember there were no photographers who looked like me,
02:50 certainly female photographers at the time, in Bradford. And it's been a really hard-fought,
02:58 glorious, challenging journey to become a photographer. I'm of South Asian heritage
03:04 and there are just not many of us that work at the level that we do. I'm very fortunate
03:08 that I do get funding to do big exhibitions, but it's hard work. A lot of personal sacrifices
03:13 are being made. But the beauty is I get to meet these really inspirational people with
03:17 every single project. The gallery itself is really important to me. It really resonates
03:22 to me because, like I say, I used to come here as a teenager and obviously after that.
03:28 And I live in this area. I grew up in Manningham. And when somebody sees someone who looks like
03:36 them and talks like them and is from the area that they come from, and they're doing a job
03:41 that they want to do, they think that they can do it when they see somebody else who
03:44 looks like them that can do it. So I believe that all the women featured in this exhibition
03:49 are pioneers. I'd like to think I'm one of them. And it's about breaking and shattering
03:54 the glass ceilings, breaking boundaries and obliterating stereotypes and saying to the
03:59 world, "Look, here we are. We're celebrating. We're standing in our power. We're standing
04:03 in our own joy and our love of our craft and our industries. And we're not going anywhere.
04:11 You're only going to see more of us and more of people that look like us. And long may
04:15 that continue."