Mayurkumar (Mayur) Mistry

THE BOOK is finally here!! Who Am I: Being Bri'esh. Curated by Mayurkumar Mistry. Why have you created this book? What is inside this book? What is the meaning behind 'BRI'ESH'? This book was not only created for a university project, which I was forced to do, but it was to understand myself and my culture and heritage through connecting with others of the similar culture. Beginning this project was quite difficult at first, as my connections as a British Indian felt quite isolated, and yet I wanted to work in a different route to my previous projects. Yes, this project had to represent my dual identity, but it also had to create meaning through the work I was producing. 6 months ago, me and Sapna met via video call, having been over 100 miles away. After a few calls, it sparked an idea where we figured that I should document Sapna on who she is and also her work as a fashion designer. Within these months, I captured her and her processes, which showcase her identity as a British South Asian. Through this, it opened my eyes into exploring more into how I saw myself as a British South Asian. As well as capturing Sapna and her processes, I got to connect with other creatives such as illustrator Abinaya and poets Dillon Parmar, Nikita Chada, Jagjeet Doheley, Yasmeen Fathima Thantrey, Priyanka Moorjani, Sanjana Narayanan where their work which shares their poetic vision living as British South Asian diasporas are inserted within the photobook to create a different vision to images as well as poems.

I wanted to take time to reflect on myself as an individual and ask myself the question 'Who am I?' So I did and took the time to make it into this reel. My name is Mayurkumar Mistry and I am 22 years old. How did I end up as a photographer? Well this started from my interest since I was at Soar Valley College, a secondary school based in Leicester. No one had supported my work and I always used to get bullied and called names such as 'cock-eyed prick', 'ugly', 'Kim Kardashian's look-alike', 'freshi' and a 'loner'. I never really had many friends at the time, but yet I used to try my best to get on with my work and focus on myself, yet my feelings used to get hurt every single day by people who hated me. I never really looked back, but I always thought about what would happen if I never existed. For 4 years, since I left Soar Valley, I never really thought about myself or my career and I've felt depressed and anxious about what the future would hold for me. Then my (what I call) Sunshine moment came to me around the early 2020's where I came to learn about self-love and gained some level of self-confidence too. I was able to get into a FD course in Photography and also get to experience some levels of photography whilst being in the course. Through this I grew and grew, learning more about my interest and it suddenly became a passion where I wanted to continue it as a career. Photography is that part of my life now that I can't live without. It is truly the love of my life, whether anyone supports me in my career or not. Even though I had photography by my side, I was still looking for someone or something that can help guide me in the right way and give me the hope to continue in such a passionate career. That's where it hit me in my soul that God is and has always been by me and guiding me throughout. Since that moment, I've believed in Lord Shiva (Shiv Bhagwan) who is known to be the supreme Lord who creates and protects the universe. This gave me the strength to be myself and then later became interested in finding myself through my cultural identity. As a Hindu, I've never really understood what it meant by the AUM and the SWASTIKA, but I researched about

Who Am I: Being Bri'esh- Behind the Scenes (BTS) Shot by: Shivani Patel @_.shivxni Edited by: Mayurkumar Mistry @mmvisualsplus Music: @ajwavy Hotline Bling x Lal Ghangra Photographer: Mayurkumar Mistry Look 1- Model: Vinay Jobanputra @vinayjobanputraa Look 2- Model: Amana @achvvy Look 3- Model: Rianka Gill @ri.anka Fashion Designer and Stylist: Sapna Patel @by.sapna Stylist Assistant and Photography Assistant: Shivani Patel @_.shivxni Studio: Daz and Tyrone @6degreesstudiouk Jewellery: @vaanamlondon #fashionblogger #fashionphotography #fashionblog #fashionweek #fashioninspo #fashionshow #fashionlovers #fashioninspiration #fashionshoot #fashionmagazine #photooftheday #instadaily #instapic #life #photography #model #instastyle #outfitinspiration #outfitpost #glamour #fashionistastyle #ootdmagazine #trend

🪷 This #SouthAsianHeritageMonth, we reflect on heritage, journeys, and connection with Villiers Revealed: ‘We Have Always Been Here’, a powerful virtual exhibition uncovering hidden queer histories. ✨ Co-created by artist @Aarancyan and poet @nikkaayyy_c alongside South Asian LGBTQ+ communities in Leicestershire, the exhibition reimagines what queer visibility and resistance have looked like – and still look like – across time and culture. @queercoffeelinkups @ndugu_mo @mmvisualsplus @dosi.leicester 👁️‍🗨️ Explore collage, poetry, and portraiture that reclaim silenced narratives. 🌐 View the digital exhibition by visiting our Linktree. #RootsToRoutes #SAHM2025 #OurStoriesMatter #CultureLeicestershire #LetsCreate #UniOfNottingham #LeicestershireLGBTQCentre #VilliersRevealed #QueerHistory #LeicestershireCollections

Some more beautiful photos of beautiful people at Villiers Revealed: We Have Always Been Here 🌌✨😍🥹 📸Captured by @mmvisualsplus 🫶🏽🫶🏽 The exhibition is now closed to the public but will live on digitally! The digital interactive exhibition was put together by @onetoonedevtrust and combines the co-created exhibition with the history and work by other collabotors 😍 You can access it here: / The exhibition expands the story of George Villiers, looking through a broader and more intersectional lens. It explores how the erasure of his queerness as a Duke, was born from the laws, attitudes and legislations from 16th Century England that were then exported worldwide to suppress and erase queerness, gender fluidity and transness. Through 4 workshops with Leicestershire based LGBTQ+ groups and people we: 🎨Created a collective tapestry with @dosti.leicester , where we explored interconnectedness and South Asian Queer stories. ✍🏽A collective poem facilitated by @nikkaayyy_c in collaboration with @queercoffeelinkups , which flowed through the exhibition space like an ocean tide, and informed artwork 🌊 💻🎨An online workshop where we created portrait collages, based on Queering portraits so they are made by us, exploring the multiple parts of queer identity. 🎨A workshop with a local LGBTQ youth group @leicestershirelgbtqcentre where we ripped, overlayed and cut silhouettes to create expressive portraits. All of these stories, words and visuals were layered into art pieces which hold the voices of the communities who contributed 🌠 and are layered with historical imagery showing pre-colonial examples of queerness and fluidity. The artwork brings past into present and future into the past ⭕ that's what queerness feels like, ancient and revolutionary, constantly shifting and building on what came before to create inclusive futures. Always honouring and creating 🙏🏽 Thank you so much to everyone who was involved 🥹 the energy of this project will live forever in my soul 🌌 that's what happens when we collectively come together to create work based on liberation, our histories and our futures 🫶🏽 💜💜💜💜

Last couple of days to see the exhibition at Melton Carnegie Museum! Villiers Revealed: We Have Always Been Here is open until 28th June! ❤️‍🔥🌠💜 Look at these incredible photographs of all the beautiful people who came to the exhibition event captured by the amazing @mmvisualsplus 💜🫶🏽 This co-curated exhibition expands the story of George Villiers - a 17th-century Duke whose queerness was speculated but ignored - looking through a more intersectional lens. The exhibition explores community responses based on how colonial laws not only suppressed queer identities in Britain but exported this erasure globally, suppressing queerness in cultures where gender fluidity, transness, and queerness had always existed. Colonialism erased the histories of trans/non-binary people - among Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other People of Colour. But these histories have existed and have their own stories. Through workshops with LGBTQ+ people  in Leicestershire/Midlands, including: 🎨A collective tapestry making workshop with @dosti.leicester ✍🏽A poetry workshop facilitated by @nikkaayyy_c in collaboration with @queercoffeelinkups 🖌️A workshop with young people part of @leicestershirelgbtqcentre 💻An online collage workshop 🖼️ We came together to connect and create, exploring identity, culture, and erased queer histories to create our own responses - the poetry and artwork flow throughout the space and are layered in all the artworks 🌠 As queer people and those with histories of colonialisation, we connect to history differently. History isn’t just something we can always just look back on, it’s something we reclaim, reshape and TRANSFORM in the present and for our futures. This exhibition is not the whole story, or the end - it’s part of an ongoing, collective conversation about our histories: how we honour what was lost, make visible what was hidden, and imagine new futures for ourselves ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 @cultureleics @leicestershire_collections

Thank you to everyone who came to the Villiers Revealed: We Have Always Been Here exhibition!! An amazing evening celebrating collective creativity and queer histories 🫶🏽 Sharing these beautifully ethereal film photographs by @mmvisualsplus who captured the warmth, joy and magic of the night so perfectly 🥹💜 The exhibition is still open until 28th June so there is still time to head to Melton Carnegie Museum to see it! So grateful to everyone who came to the event, contributed artwork, stories and your presence in whatever way you did throughout 🫶🏽 the artwork came together through workshops with: @dosti.leicester : where we made the collective tapestry! @queercoffeelinkups @nikkaayyy_c : A poetry workshop where the collective poem was birthed from, which flows through the space and informed the artwork on display @leicestershirelgbtqcentre incredible young people made collages which are layered throughout the artwork The feedback that you have all shared has been so special and affirming - about how it felt to see history that centres QTPOC, colonialism, gender fluidity, artwork and stories directly from the community - represented in a museum space in Leicestshire. It's a gentle reminder of how important it is for us to continue taking up space within spaces that our histories have always been 💜🫶🏽 Poetry by the powerhouses who shared their energy, words and art with us at the event @ocoe_toast @cinnamoncasket @earthstartshere truly brought the night together in queer and trans joy and community, the feelings of your words are still deep within me and will be for a long long time ❤️‍🔥🌠 thank you to @queercoffeelinkups for curating this UNFORGETTABLE lineup 🫶🏽 @ndugu_mo @mojo.djs everyone has been talking about your DJ set! Hearing South Asian sounds mixed like that brought allllll the spice 😍 Thank you so much to the team at Melton Carnegie Museum who really went above and beyond to make the event feel so special and welcoming! From arranging transport to bringing decoration - being in the museum and seeing it so alive felt like a dream ♥️ I have so much more incredible pictures and appreciation posts!💜💜💜💜

What an epic night, having ended it with the main headliners @panjabihitsquad #panjabi #hit #squad #photography #dji #nightclub

@djkizzi IN DA HOUSEE ✨️ #ukgarage #bollywood #djlife #pioneerdj #clubphotography #2funky #fullhouse

A big thank you to @daalnbass for having me photograph this amazing event. It was fully packed and got to enjoy the fabulous vibes. #nightclub #photooftheday #dj #punjabi #photography #fyp #experience #nightlife

@hoodjabiofficialuk comfy and sustainable tracksuits ✨️ Their collection is available to buy on their website and 10% of their profits will be donated to help 🇵🇸 Photography: @mmvisualsplus Fashion: @hoodjabiofficialuk Model 2: @alisha_.7.8.6 Creative direction: @seemazshah #trending #comfort #tracksuit #photooftheday #art #fashion

The @hoodjabiofficialuk collection made with comfortable and sustainable fashion, to keep you looking chic and modest within the comfort of your own homes and outdoors too ✨️ Make sure to buy their collection on their website. A percentage of their profits will go towards aiding the people of 🇵🇸 Photography: @mmvisualsplus Fashion: @hoodjabiofficialuk Model 2: @humayra_miah Model 3: @alisha_.7.8.6 Model 4: Sadia #trending #photooftheday #fashion #londonphotographer #modesty #creative