Taha Ahmad

Art: photography from “Swan Song of the Badlas”

Art: photography from “Swan Song of the Badlas”

This series, “Swan Song of the Badlas,” follows the last remaining artisans of traditional mukaish badla embroidery, which flourished in the 18th century. There were once 3,000 mukaish badla artisans in Lucknow, the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh; that number is now closer to 25, all of them over the age of 65.