Gavin Fernandes: Empire Line, Harewood House, Leeds

24 March 2017 – 29 October 2017

A series of contemporary photographic prints explore the social divisions between British and native women in colonial India.

Indian-born photographer Gavin Fernandes has created a series of images inspired by the divisions that existed between the ‘memsahibs’ – the British colonial middle-class ladies who resided in India throughout the 19th century – and the native, indigenous women.

The four subjects represented in his pictures are of Indian origin, but they are dressed in a combination of both British 19th-century middle-class style and indigenous clothing. The differences in their cultural attire highlight a huge gap in inequality, even more startling when seen together on the same woman.