NEW YORK: Several Sikh-Americans have been featured in a photo exhibition set to open in New York, to challenge public misconceptions of practitioners of the religion. 'The Sikh Project' has been created by British Sikh photographer Naroop, along with fellow photographer Amit. "when people look at a gentleman with a beard and a turban, they think he's a terrorist. Sikhs get labelled and categorised in groups and individuals that they're not. It's time to break that barrier down and remove all the stereotypes associated with it."
The exhibition features 38 portraits of Sikh-American men and woman, and include the faces of Waris Singh Ahluwalia, a New York actor whose work includes 'The Grand Budapest Hotel', and Vishavjit Singh, a cartoonist who adapted Sikh Captain America persona on the streets of the city to bring awareness about social identity. Sapreet Kaur, executive director of the Sikh Coalition, which will present the free exhibition, said, "We wanted to bring about an exhibition that could capture the beauty of the Sikh faith and the Sikh American experience in a way that could help the public understand who we are, what we stand for and what we believe in."
Kaur said the organisation was the result of the 9/11 tragedy, born "as a result to the hate backlash we began experiencing after those attacks."
