Description:As 'strangers' in a strange land, it was important for migrants to stay in touch with their families in the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent. Airmail letters carried important news to and from home. For migrants it was necessary to convey how well they were doing in Britain in order to confirm that the time and effort it had taken to get there had been worth it
Photographs from the Dyche collection at Birmingham Central Library show how migrants were keen to display the social advancement that had resulted from their journey overseas. The studio, run by Ernest Dyche and his son Malcolm, was based at 354 Moseley Road in Balsall Heath. From the 1950's, until it closed in the 1980's, the studio had a mainly African Caribbean and South Asian clientele. Many new migrants posed for studio portraits in either their best clothes or immaculate work uniforms to show their relatives that they really had 'arrived' in Britain. The sitter, often dressed in a formal suit, took care to display visible signs of education, prosperity and class such as pens in a lapel pocket or a wrist watch. Some were photographed reading a book or answering a telephone to show that they had adopted a more sophisticated lifestyle. The grim reality of the colour bar, which contradicted the idea of success, was excluded from these images.
Whilst many of the Dyche portraits show people presenting an image of success that reflects 'Western' status symbols and ideals, photographs of migrants from South Asian backgrounds in the archive in contrast reflect a tendency to maintain the cultural symbols and values of the 'homeland'. These portraits, which would either have been placed in the homes of migrants in Britain or sent to relatives abroad, reveal a determined effort to reflect and preserve the culture of the homeland in a new setting. Amongst the portraits in the collection is one of a woman in a sari holding an ornate traditional tea tray which depicts a traditional image of Indian femininity untouched by her encounter with 'the West.'
This portrait of two men, wearing turbans and dhotis with their western-style white shirts, shows the inevitable meeting of two cultures and the impossible dream of the 'homeland'. As they raise empty glasses in a toast to their new life, a child in typically western clothes stands between them and looks out into the future beyond.
Author: Sarah Dar