FREE THE WORK
Photograph by Vikesh Kapoor
Vikesh Kapoor is one of 20 Fellows who were awarded the inaugural Image Equity Fellowship. Learn more here.
The Day After (2023) by Vikesh KapoorFREE THE WORK
A portrait of Sarla, the artist's mother, is surrounded by flowers and lights, a day after her funeral.
Vikesh Kapoor is a singer-songwriter and a photographer. “My medium changes depending on the kind of story I want to tell,” he says. The story Kapoor is telling in his latest photographic series is a story about his family, specifically the lives of his parents, Sarla and Shailendra, who were married in 1969 and immigrated from India to London and New York before settling in Pennsylvania.
The Last Photograph of My Mother Standing (2022) by Vikesh KapoorFREE THE WORK
Sarla's hands reach over the stove as she steams milk. The last photo of the artist's mother.
Father (2022) by Vikesh KapoorFREE THE WORK
The artist's father, Shailendra poses for a portrait in the fall.
They were doctors. “We’re a Team,” a promotion from the Lockhaven Hospital declared in an announcement about the couple. Beginning in 2018, Kapoor decided to make a record of his parents, photographing them at home and drawing upon family albums and documents, in an effort “to explore their life aging, as immigrants.” He discovered letters his mother wrote to his father after their engagement and portraits from their wedding day.
Wedding Dress (1969) by Vikesh KapoorFREE THE WORK
Sarla, the artist's mother, on her wedding day in 1969.
Wedding Ceremony (1969) by Vikesh KapoorFREE THE WORK
The wedding day of the artist's parents (to the right) in 1969.
Plastic Flowers (2022) by Vikesh KapoorFREE THE WORK
Plastic flowers in the artist's childhood home.
All of these details suddenly held new meanings when Sarla died on January 11, 2023. Grief can be distorting and illuminating. A woman’s hands as she steams milk or a man’s blazer worn to a funeral: the fragility of the body and the resilience of memory. One photograph shows an altar before which Kapoor’s family told stories of Sarla. At the center is a portrait Kapoor made of Sarla posed against a plain white backdrop, poised and self-possessed—a final collaboration between mother and son.
Editorial statement by Aperture.
My Father’s Bedroom (My Childhood Bedroom) (2020) by Vikesh KapoorFREE THE WORK
The artist's father, Shailendra, sits on his bed in what once was the artist's childhood bedroom.
Sari/Moon (2022) by Vikesh KapoorFREE THE WORK
An original painting in the hallway of the artist's childhood bedroom.
Funeral (2022) by Vikesh KapoorFREE THE WORK
A blazer worn by the artist's father on the day of his wife's funeral.
Vikesh Kapoor
Click below to see more work from this California-based image maker:
Web: vikeshkapoor.com
IG: @vikeshkapoor
Explore the other 2022 Image Equity Fellows’ final projects and learn more about the Fellowship here.
