Mahtab Hussain

Mahtab Hussain (born 1981) is a British fine art portrait photographer whose work comments on cultural differences. His bodies of work include You Get Me?, about issues of identity in working class British Asian young men and boys; Going Back Home to Where I Came From, photographs of Kashmir and Pakistan where his parents are from; and Honest With You about the changing identity of British Muslim women.

His work has been published in four books, is held in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and has been shown in solo exhibitions at mac and Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, New Art Exchange in Nottingham, Impressions Gallery in Bradford, and The New Art Gallery Walsall.

Hussain is of Kashmiri / Pakistani origin.

Life and work Hussain's parents were first generation Muslim immigrants, his mother from a small village in Azad Kashmir and his father from Gujar Khan, Punjab. then moved to Birmingham in 1987 when his parents divorced. In Birmingham he lived with his mother for two years in Handsworth, "a very black and Asian area" He "suffered intense racism" in Druids Heath from the age of seven to 17. He struggled to find artistic work that reflected his experiences as a British Asian, so in 2010 he became an artist "to help bridge this gap" —as he explains:

"I've never seen myself on a billboard. I've never seen a model dressed the way these guys dress. I think the level of shit that's been built up–the narrative that we have about ourselves, which we have no control of–has left us fucking pissed off, and rightly so. I feel so invisible. That's why I became an artist. I wanted to represent this society in artistic space." mostly portraits, of working class, British Asian, young men and boys, all Muslims, in Nottingham, Birmingham and London. "within that community, and in a broader sense the issues of male redundancy in the working classes, and the psychological damage of sweeping media generalisations".

His series Honest With You is about the changing identity of British Muslim women. It tries to show how the women are faring better with the changes than their male contemporaries.

Hussain finds his subjects by walking around and approaching people on the street. What Does it Mean to be a British Pakistani Male Today?, mac, Birmingham, April–October 2012. The Commonality of Strangers, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, January–April 2015; Strange Cargo, Folkestone, October–December 2015. Mitti Ka Ghar – Clay House, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, October–November 2016. You Get Me?, Autograph ABP, London, May–July 2017. You Get Me?, Impressions Gallery, Bradford, January–March 2018. Going Back Home to Where I Came From, The New Art Gallery Walsall, May–September 2018. Also Mitti Ka Ghar, May 2018 – February 2019.

Television and radio programmes "Mahtab Hussain: Honest with You", Snapshots, Episode 4, Series 1 – BBC Radio 4 programme broadcast 18 December 2017 "Mahtab Hussain", What Do Artists Do All Day? – BBC Four TV programme broadcast 16 August 2018

Collections Hussain's work is held in the following public collections: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX: 3 prints (as of August 2018)