Our Lives, Our Way, Together [2024-]

Our Lives, Our Way, Together is an ongoing photographic project by Shizza Majeed that centres and uplifts young South Asian women navigating life in Westernised societies. In these environments, South Asian women are often placed outside Eurocentric beauty ideals, facing judgment and exclusion simply for existing in their own skin. This project is a quiet rebellion — a celebration of culture, identity, and inherited strength.

South Asia, with its vast and layered diversity across eight regions, holds a richness that is often overlooked. Through this work, Majeed seeks to honour that complexity, beginning with three remarkable women from East London — Shekinah George, Harleen Bhatia, and Soha Ahmad. Each has generously shared her story, reflecting the joys and tensions of growing up as a second-generation immigrant in the UK. Accompanying these intimate narratives are medium format colour film portraits taken in Walthamstow Village in East London — offering a striking contrast and a reclaiming of space.

Born initially from personal conversations, the project has since evolved into a broader mission: to amplify the voices of South Asian women, challenge invisibility, and honour lives too often marginalised. While there has been progress in the dialogue around representation, the South Asian female experience remains underrepresented. This work aims to shift that lens — not by excluding others, but by unapologetically centring those who have long been overlooked.

At its core, this project is a gesture of love, liberation and visibility. It is an offering, a beginning, and a commitment to sharing more stories that speak to the diversity, beauty, and strength of South Asian womanhood.