Ten migrants living in London reminisce about the food that keeps the memories of their homelands alive
Words and images by Tanya Houghton
Editor’s note: What is home? Is it just a physical place or a tiny dot that you can point to on a map? What helps us build a certain notion of home in our minds? Is it the people, the relationships, the tiny everyday objects we use, the pots, the chairs, the pets, the photographs, the food…? Would our stories of home be the same if we spoke a different language or cooked with different ingredients? How much of our real selves remain as we adopt newer cultures, cuisines, and flavours? How much of it can we carry with us as we move on in search of newer, sometimes safer, homes?
The following photo-series, which captures the nostalgia that ten migrants living in London feel for their homelands, raises many such pertinent questions that are especially relevant in today’s turbulent times. Photographer Tanya Houghton uses little remnants from their memories to recreate images that represent what home means to them through carefully designed, evocative photographs. For these youngsters, food memories remain their strongest links to their motherlands. We join them as they try to visually recreate their personal histories through the food they ate back home and continue to eat now in London. This work, titled A Migrant’s Tale, is soon…
