The motivation for the project is the belief that there is significant generational knowledge nested in women everywhere. An ongoing project, Mai Ni Meriye, seeks to ensure that their knowledge and way of life are archived and widely shared. This project is a love letter to the women of Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India and women everywhere, who create and sustain life with grit, but also grace.

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Mai Ni Meriye translates in English to “oh dear mother.” The name of the project comes from a popular Himachali folk song of the same title, passed down by generations. The song has also been covered by many popular Indian musicians and is commonly known in Himachal and greater India. 

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There are multiple interpretations and contested histories on the origins of the song. I have understood the lyrics to be the voice of a young bride or woman, asking other, older women, on her route to her lover or husband’s home, for directions as she travels. This song, while a romantic love song, struck me more so when reading in between the lines. The lyrics addressing “Mai” or “Mother” reveal the longstanding network of women and their knowledge of the paths and routes through the mountains, but more symbolically, their knowledge of the paths and routes of life. 

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The project launched in 2024 as a photobook and a short documentary film consisting of interviews with 19 different women from across the Kangra region. The interviews explore the women’s everyday life, their thoughts and ideas on labour, family, and their lives as women, in the various roles they hold. The photobook is available for purchase in the UK at Tenderbooks. 

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Womanhood in the Mountains: A Contemporary Archive

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The latest evolution of the project is the premiere of a travelling photo exhibition now on view until September at The Other Space, a locally owned and operated art gallery in Dharamshala, India. The exhibition is sponsored by PhotoSouthAsia, an international organisation supporting photography across the South Asian region. 

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In collaboration with Photographer Farheen Fatima, the artist also behind the 2024 photobook, we expanded the project in this exhibition to depict womanhood in totality – still with an emphasis on labour, but showcasing more aspects of femininity and nature. 

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Shot over two years, the project explores villages nestled in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India, capturing the indescribable details of womanhood through portraits of everyday life and labour. 

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This exhibition is a contemporary archive of the overlooked, gendered cultural life happening against the backdrop of the towering Dhauladhar mountain ranges. While travellers often come to take in the beauty of the hills and escape the woes of urban life, ‘Mai Ni Meriye’ directs the audience’s attention to the region’s local women, invisible labour, and femininity, embedded and everlasting among the landscape. 

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In this collection of photographs on display and in the photobook, Farheen adds visual language to my study on labour and identity in women. Farheen’s intimate and tender lens personifies womanhood in nature, homes, and objects in addition to the women who consistently exercise care for their families, the land, and the livestock.  

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This exhibition is a reminder of how both universal and complex womanhood can be. 

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About the Artists

Farheen Fatima is a photographer based in Chandigarh, India. Her practice focuses on tenderness, belonging, and the emotional landscapes of everyday life, often in overlooked small cities and public spaces. Working primarily with digital, film, and cyanotypes, often hand-altered to make emotional additions, she builds intimate narratives that resist spectacle, foregrounding softness, care, and memory. Her series Meet Me In The Garden was exhibited by Photoink Gallery at the India Art Fair 2023 (New Delhi) and Chennai Photo Biennale 2024. She was part of the Serendipity Arts Festival 2024 (Goa) and India Art Fair 2026 (New Delhi).  Internationally, her work has been shown at the Sharjah Art Foundation 2022 (UAE), Kuala Lumpur Photo Awards 2022 (Malaysia), London Art Week 2023 (UK), Der Greif 2023 (Germany) and  Jameel Arts Centre 2025 (UAE). Her work has been featured by Apple, Getty Images, Vogue India, Platform Magazine, Homegrown India and Critical Collective amongst others. She holds a Master’s in History of Art from Panjab University, Chandigarh. She received the TOTO Photography Award in 2022 and is the recipient of the Experimenter Generator Co-Operative Art Production Fund 2025.

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I, Aashna Singh, am a researcher and multimedia producer living between the States and India. I completed my B.A. in Economics from Barnard College and Columbia University in 2019, and a M.A in Gender and Sexuality Studies from The University of Chicago in 2025. My M.A thesis, ‘The Labor of Love Project,’ was the recipient of the ‘Intrepid’ Thesis Award for ambitious, public-facing thesis projects that cross between critical and creative modes. My work primarily examines the social, cultural, and economic aspects of womanhood with special attention to the institutions of marriage, motherhood, and family. In 2023, I left New York City to pursue my research from my grandmother’s home in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India.