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Toronto-based photographer and artist Meera Sethi’s Upping the Aunty began as a street-style photography project: a portrait of South Asian women whose individuality is often overlooked when “aunty” is treated as a single, predictable type. Sethi’s photographs put these women’s style and presence at the centre; the project later expanded into paintings and adult colouring books.
What “aunty” means in Sethi’s project
In the project’s early account, Sethi used “aunty” for women of a generation older than she was—women she did not want to address by first name out of respect. The subjects shared South Asian heritage but lived in different places. The word therefore describes a relationship and a form of respect, not one fixed look or personality. Scroll.in’s 2014 profile reported that Sethi began the series while in Mumbai, photographing women in places including Bandra and the Gateway of India, then continued the project after returning home.
How the photographs challenge a narrow image of aunty style
The photographs attend to the distinct ways the women dress and carry themselves: saris alongside sunglasses, expressive poses, and combinations of familiar and unexpected elements. Rather than argue that all aunties share a recognizable uniform, Sethi asks whether there is such a thing as “aunty style” while insisting on the differences among the women she photographs.
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That focus also shifts who gets to be seen as fashionable. Sethi described the project as a way of “challenging how we understand street fashion and honouring the role of our aunties, particularly in the South Asian diaspora,” in an email quoted by Scroll.in. She added: “Aunties are not used to being told that their style is appreciated or that they are the centre of attention.” The photographs make that appreciation visible without reducing their subjects to a single cultural stereotype.
From street photographs to paintings and books
The 2014 Scroll.in article described the collection at that time as 26 photographs and reported Sethi’s plans for a second phase of large paintings. That count belongs to the project as reported in 2014; it is not a current total. The work has since become a three-part project. Sethi’s official project page describes it as combining street-style photographs, paintings and an adult colouring book. It also places the work in a broader conversation about personal style, aunties’ roles in people’s lives, and Eurocentric narratives about feminized immigrant and diasporic communities, national identity and fashion.
The project continues in book form. On November 11, 2024, Sethi’s official news page announced Upping the Aunty 2, a colouring book containing 30 new drawings, and directed readers to purchase information. The announcement establishes the book and its contents, but does not confirm current stock or availability through any particular retailer.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the project matters to painting
Upping the Aunty treats style as more than clothing: it is a way of noticing individuality, presence and social roles. Its movement between photography, painting and drawing lets Sethi return to the same subject in different forms, while keeping the women—not an abstract idea of “aunty”—in view. The result is both a celebration of personal expression and a challenge to assumptions about who belongs in conversations about street fashion and popular culture.
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