Woman's portrait of daughter wins prize

A woman who took an online photography course during lockdown has won a national competition with a portrait of her daughter.

Anna Mehta, from York, took a photograph of her six-year-old daughter Nina stood in the Yorkshire Dales while dressed in her family's traditional Indian clothes.

The picture won a spot in the annual Portrait of Britain competition and has been displayed on billboards across the country.

Ms Mehta, whose family are of British and Indian heritage, said: "I started doing a project documenting how we were raising our children with this dual heritage identity and I wanted them to be really proud of it and where they're from."

As one of the winning 100 portraits in the contest run by the British Journal of Photography, the photo of Nina was displayed on digital screens across Britain.

During January, it could be seen in locations including Leeds Station, Manchester Piccadilly Station and on billboards in London.

"I was doing a project based on my family, my children are dual heritage and my husband's family are Indian," Ms Mehta, who is originally from Richmond, said.

"When he grew up, he lived in London surrounded by all of his Indian family, culture and heritage every single day."

The winning photo was taken on a family day out to the Yorkshire Dales, near Middleham.

"Nina loves wearing her Indian clothes that her Nani brings back from India for her," the photographer added.

"So we had those in the car and she put them on and stood on this little path.

"She was really proud, really showing 'this is who I am, this is where I'm from and this is me'."

Ms Mehta said she had been keen to capture Nina's mantra, 'I'm Yorkshire and I'm Indian - both, not half'.

After encouragement from a fellow photographer, Ms Mehta entered the photo into the competition, not expecting a response.

"I got this email one evening and I was jumping around my living room," she said.

"It was crazy that I'd been shortlisted and then when I got the follow up email, that I was one of the winners."

Coming home from Leeds one evening, Ms Mehta's husband saw Nina's picture on a screen at the station.

"He had a moment of thinking 'that's unbelievable' and was welling up and sent me a picture," Ms Mehta added.

"That weekend, we all went and stood in Leeds station on a cold Sunday morning and we got to see it.

"Nina and I were jumping up and down because it was really exciting.

"It's been on huge billboards, I couldn't believe the size of the billboards that it's been on."

The York photographer's ambition is to carry on capturing her family's identity and branch out to picturing other families with dual heritage.

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