Photographic artist Sam Ivin has created 23 portraits of people from the Punjabi community in Stoke-on-Trent, and you can view them now at the New Vic Theatre.
Each person featured has shared their story as part of Punjab to the Potteries, a joint project from Appetite and the New Vic to commission two new short plays inspired by the journeys of local people whose families began their story in the Punjab region before settling in The Potteries.
During the process of taking the portraits, Sam took a keen interest in the sitter’s individual stories and used his conversations with them as the basis for the decorations that he hand painted onto each print. Tailored to each individual, they include colourful patterns and symbols inspired by Sikh images and Punjabi fashion.
You may recognise Sam’s work from the Settling photography project he created as part of The Big Feast 2017. That exhibition, delivered in partnership with GRAIN Projects, documented the stories of those who have migrated from around the world to establish lives in the Stoke-on-Trent area. It went on to have subsequent showings at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, and Keele University.
Alongside these portraits are three series of images by Val Bansal, who first approached Appetite with the idea behind the Punjab to the Potteries. One selection of images is from the family photo albums of Val’s father, Baldev Bansal, showcasing his family’s history from his origins in the Punjab up to the modern day. It was these photos that inspired the idea behind the project.
Val said: “Punjab to the Potteries was an idea that came about when sorting out old photos at home. Looking at them sort of inspired me in a way as it opened an abundance of questions of what it must have been like living in a small village in Punjab and travelling half way around the world to Stoke-on-Trent in the early 1960s to settle: how hard or difficult the journey was, leaving family behind, learning a new language, adapting to a new culture, education and work, food – the list is endless. There must be countless stories and memories as well as many more photos in numerous households of people and families who took a similar journey.”
Another set of images Val has captured is around the raising of the Nishan Sahib – or Sikh flag – at two local Gurdwaras as part of the spring Vaisakhi festival, which takes place on 13th or 14th April each year. And the third image series capture the local Punjabi community, including some of playwright Sarah Bedi’s initial visits with community groups while researching her play.
These community conversations have formed the main body of research that the two playwrights involved in the project – Shahid Iqbal Khan (Love Across the Ages, BBC Radio 4, 2022) and Sarah Bedi (The Process, The Bunker Theatre, 2023) – based their plays on. If you are interested in how those plays turned out, we would like to invite you to a play reading and celebration event at New Vic Theatre on Saturday 12 August where the two new plays will be read in the auditorium by actors. We very much hope that they will go into full production at some future date.
For more information about the celebration event go to the event listing, and book now to secure your free tickets.
You can see the Punjab to the Potteries exhibition upstairs at the New Vic Monday – Saturday, 10am – 3pm until 14 August.