The photographer Sydney Rahimtoola explores myths and heritage in her work
For photographer Sydney Rahimtoola, imaging has been an essential tool in exploring some of the more difficult questions surrounding identity. After spending her younger years in Queens, New York in a neighborhood teeming with immigrants and migrants, the photographer was fascinated by community ideas from an early age – especially given her family's Dominican heritage.
“I've always wanted to do a project about this neighborhood in Queens, but I firmly believed it had to be a documentary film project,” explains the photographer, who graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 2018. Then I realized it didn't have to be that way. Working with the people closest to you with a personal narrative can speak more at the community level. "
This idea gave rise to her first film, I Forgot How to Speak Spanish, which plunges the viewer into a world of domestic magic that combines familiarity and surrealism. "I started questioning the idea of what home is, especially with the Trump administration, and thinking about the people at home and how they deal with it," she told CR.
In the film, the photographer's aunt and grandma give the instructions for making stones – twice-fried plantains – while bathed in bright pink light. Rahimtoola's sister also appears on the set, wrapped in sequins and with plantains inexplicably taped around her arms. An accompanying series of portraits shows members of her family, including her mother, posing in front of silky curtains in an environment that consists partly of bizarre theater and partly of everyday interiors.
“I began to question my perspective and position as a photographer and how I see my family,” says Rahimtoola of the thought process behind the film and the photographs. "There was nostalgia too, so I recreated and performed the family routine that I love."
The film was shot over three days without a script, and Rahimtoola says her family was completely open to the idea, especially because cooking together was such a natural process. For the accompanying portraits, the photographer wanted to delve deeper into the ideas of the culture as well as into her relationship and perception of her mother, who appears naked in the series. Rahimtoola says she had photographed her mother a few years earlier and wanted to explore her relationship with aging and her body, as well as the idea of motherhood.
Above: Still of I forgot how to speak a Spanish movie. Above: portraits that accompany the short film
In addition, Rahimtoola describes I Forgot How to Speak Spanish as a way to deal with some issues of identity politics in the US. "If you grew up in America, you can have misinformation about yourself and your culture – whether you're proud of where you are from or if you have to adapt to that American point of view or way of life," she explains.
“I see America as more than that, and I realized that studying my culture through photography made me more proud of who I am. It also made me realize that sometimes you can photograph different cultures or heritage or different angles with people around you. You don't have to go far away to address certain things that you are feeling. "
Rahimtoola, who now lives in the Netherlands, has continued to study ideas of heritage and is particularly fascinated by folklore and its role in different societies. In 2019 she created an installation and a series of portraits titled La Ciguapa – a mythological creature from Dominican folklore who lures men to eat them alive.
The photographer is fascinated by the way such stories are used in different cultures and communities and how they intersect with the domestic realm. "I'm starting to get more interested in magical realism and how little magical moments are still rooted in our daily lives," she says.
La Ciguapa
Yamuna Forzani Utopia Ball x Fashion Show Campaign 2019
Like many others, 2020 has slowed Rahimtoola's workflow and production. Though she says the pandemic "froze her a bit," this year she started exploring the curatorial side of photography and is interested in the role it plays in merging stories. She has also started taking an interest in psychedelics and mental health, and learning more about her Indian heritage from her father's side. She is also planning a film about the life of her recently deceased uncle.
“Before, a lot of things I did were cathartic and felt like studies. It's exciting to start with, but I sometimes find it even more interesting to zoom in on a little thing, and that's what I'm trying to do now, "she says.
Banana gun, 2019
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