In Ohio, the Sikh community passes traditions to the next generation

Article excerpt

Photographer Akash Pamarthy has spent years documenting Sikh communities across Ohio, capturing how families navigate the transmission of religious traditions to their children. His images reveal the texture of daily life, temple gatherings, personal rituals, intergenerational moments, within a faith community that remains relatively understudied in American photography. The work explores both continuity and change: how young Sikhs maintain their heritage through practices like wearing turbans and attending gurdwaras while growing up in the Midwest. Pamarthy's project functions as visual ethnography, giving particular attention to the lived experience of this diaspora community rather than treating Sikhism as abstract doctrine or news peg.