What’s a wedding without a dirtbike doughnut? Hark1karan’s best photograph

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What’s a wedding without a dirtbike doughnut? Hark1karan’s best photograph

The Guardian · 3 hours ago

Photographer Hark1karan reflects on a family portrait taken in Southall, west London, showing two Punjabi brothers, their father and their dirt bikes and quad bike. The image grew from a chance visit while researching his documentary Zimmers of Southall, and matters because it presents an intimate, everyday view of a British Punjabi family and their shared enthusiasm for vehicles.

Taken in March 2021, the photograph followed an attempt to capture one brother, Rav, doing a wheelie; his brother Inderjit and their father then joined the portrait. Hark1karan has remained in touch with the family and later photographed them at a wedding, where they had performed doughnuts and burnouts early that morning. The London-born, self-taught artist says his wider work aims to document Punjabi and Sikh communities with trust and honesty, including through seven self-published books and three short documentaries.

  • A Southall family portrait celebrates Punjabi culture and a shared love of bikes.
  • The photograph developed from research for a local documentary.
  • Hark1karan documents everyday Sikh and Punjabi life in Britain.

Culture

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