Imdad Barbhuyan explores intimacy and belonging through the muse of his mother

The photography of Imdad Barbhuyan is so gentle and refined, you’d be easily mistaken in thinking he’s an artist with decades in the field. Instead, Imdad is a young talent, an exciting self-taught visual artist based out of Delhi, India. “The final photographs are of little significance to me,” Imdad tells It’s Nice That. “I am more enamoured by the process of being in that moment, of having seen something beautiful and then making something of it; to document this physical reality but also to bring out my sentimental embodiment of that experience.”

Now, Imdad works to “erase the presence of the camera” from their work, and invites viewers to see what he sees with his heart. “Having nature as my central theme, I work around ideas of memory, intimacy, desire, loss and grief,” he explains. “I work with ordinary, everyday objects and try to elevate them to something more.” For example, a wine glass is a common motif for the photographer. “The wine glasses are ‘us’, empty and parched and all it takes to be full is to seek the right things,” he says.

Images of his mother and home captured our attention the most. “Through these images of my mother, her hands, her hair and flowers and fruits from our garden, I am trying to talk about intimacy and belonging, celebrating where I come from and creating a visual world of what ‘home’ means to me,” Imdad says. “That’s a question I believe we all keep asking ourselves, throughout our lives.”