For most part, Mumbai-based photographer Porus Vimadalal has been indifferent to his aquiline nose. “It was never a topic of discussion for me. In fact, I didn’t think too much of it, except for the fact that it was big,” he tells us over a video call. “At some point, I actually began loving that feature about my face, and realised that there was nothing I wanted to change about it.” Noses, however, got mentioned too often during conversations with his Parsi relatives and friends who appeared to have a shared interest in this hereditary exclusiveness that sometimes made them stick out like a sore thumb—it was mostly in jest, rarely as a genuine cause for concern, but always a reminder of the peculiarity of the typical Parsi face, he recalls. Their distinct and large noses, either crowned by a prominent bulbous dorsal hump or a hooked beak, continue to remain the butt of good ol’ jokes.  

Porus Vimadalal’s Parsi Nose Project, intends to provide a visual record of the wide gamut of noses that the community boasts of