Nadia Patel is a digital journalist from Bolton. She's had a great interest in photography since a young age, starting a freelance wedding photography business at the age of 16 before then beginning her studies at LBU.

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Nadia has also studied journalism abroad in California, USA where she took part in some of the Black Lives Matter protests. She has developed a strong passion for documentary photography and upon finishing her degree at Leeds Beckett University, Nadia will be using her time to focus on becoming a Human Rights Journalist.

 

Nadia’s project, ‘East Meets West’, is a series of photographs combining both Western and Eastern influences, in a world which applauds euro-centric beauty standards. The beauty industry fails to showcase representation for people of colour but ironically finds no problem using cultural attire to fit the ‘aesthetic’. It is a process that selectively glorifies aspects of culture when they become profitable, while ignoring the lived experience of people who must actively suppress facets of their identity in order to be accepted in Western society. Nadia believes this is an important issue to address.