Jaskirt Dhaliwal-Boora is a multi-disciplinary artist with a focus on socially-engaged practice, working with local communities on global issues. She is interested in celebrating untold stories and empowering marginalised communities, whilst exploring visual representations of gender, ethnicity and place. Dhaliwal-Boora is also the founder of @womeninphotobham, a bi-monthly social event for women photographers in the West Midlands.

a place called home brings together the stories of four young girls and their families, and the effects of generational trauma. Commissioned by West Midlands Police, the project saw Dhaliwal-Boora collaborating with Sandwell teenagers Codie, Kiera, Sienna and Tiegan in a series of workshops, interviews and photo shoots exploring the importance of family and what home meant to them.

The revelations in the 2023 Baroness Casey Review, and women’s charity Refuge’s research into police misconduct, have highlighted the institutional failures within policing when it comes to issues of violence against women and girls (VAWG). This project came about following work West Midlands Police undertook with Coventry City of Culture, exploring how arts and creative activities can help the police gain insight and understanding into the communities they serve. The project’s aim was to foster a greater understanding of how people’s life experiences might contribute to vulnerability, and to harness the power of photography to generate empathy and understanding amongst officers that might inform police practice, and positively influence interactions with young people.

Dhaliwal-Boora’s body of work reflects a two-pronged approach; an urgency in encouraging police officers to react differently when facing situations of VAWG, and then the longer-term project of empowerment, knowledge exchange and therapy amongst the young participants. Photography can be a powerful tool in allowing people to work through past experiences and process traumas, increase confidence and self-esteem, and regain some control over their own representation and ultimately, their lives. For Dhaliwal-Boora, the project was unique because it provided the opportunity to speak directly to police officers, making the lives of Codie, Kiera, Sienna and Tiegan, and other girls like them, a reality rather than a statistic.

This project was commissioned by West Midlands Police, and supported by Birmingham City University, Barnados and St Michael’s CE High School.