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1 gues wriers noe:Trespassing on Gallery Walls Shahidul Alam2 beyod borders: A Photographers Thoughts Tanvi Mishra
6 traspare barriers Suruchi Dumpawar/LUCIDA
8 Jaimin Bhavsar Poems by Rukmini Bhaya Nair
12 Mark Esplin
20 Chandan gomes With text by Joshua Muyiwa
28 Siddhartha Hajra40 Timothy Hill
46 Aparna Jayakumar
52 Devansh Jhaveri60 Surendra Lawoti
trespass
tx . Pp pp.
all i . n p f i plici pc i f i pi pii.
PIX i ppiip f r all.
Editor: Rahaab Allana. Photo editorial: LUCIDA. Resource Persons: Aksha Mahajan, Kaushik Ramaswam. Editorial: Nandita Jaishankar, Tani Mishra.
Desin and Laout: Arati Deasher, www.aratideasher.com. Front Coer Photo credit: Deansh Jhaeri. From the series Trespass ; varanasi, 2011; Diital
Primar sponsor with support from With participation from
From the series Under Construction
b Arunima Sinh
Construction Site17,
2009, Ahmedabad
6x6 color neatie scan
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Trespassing on gallery Walls
Shahu Aam
Id better put on my sincere smile he said as he
straightened up, realising I was about to take his
picture. Arthur C. Clarke, the king of Sci-Fi, was only
half joking. The sincere smile is certainly not the
monopoly of the pre-election campaigner.
I find myself doing it when I spy a camera. Or
put on a sombre expression depending upon
what seems more appropriate. I straighten my
hair. Others turn away, some beam, some get
embarrassed. The camera is rarely something
one is inert to. Our own image is somethingwe jealously guard.
The photograph trespasses in other ways. The
fine art critic, unsure of how to value the medium,
is uncomfortable in photographyland. Flirting with
reality, rejecting the norms of classical art practice,
the deliberately banal, the quietly provocative,
the inanely repetitive and even the stunningly
picturesque photograph, unsettles viewers
on gallery walls. Is it good? Should I like it?
Should I pay?
Media gatekeepers not versed in the language
of pictures make clichd statements weighing
images in word terms. They recognise its value but
are reluctant to make way for those visually more
literate. A caste system where the photographer isat the lowest rung, allows word people to pull rank,
even when clearly out of their depth.
So what is it about the photograph that makes
it so problematic? Its association with veracity
gives it a power other art forms or cultural
practices lack. But surely, one can willingly embrace
a powerful medium.
Is black & white better than colour? Is analogue
superior to digital? Can a medium dependent on
technology be considered real art?
These meaningless questions have not yet been
put to rest in mainstream discourse and they
get in the way of appreciating a photograph.
We are all photographers in the way we are not
all painters or singers or dancers. As such, the
reading of a photograph should have been easy.
Indeed the undeniably strong engagement of the
photograph with the viewer demonstrates that it
is easy to read a photograph at an emotional and
spontaneous level. Why then should the analysis of
a photograph not be so facile?
The inability to categorise the photographic
image, makes it difficult for us to pin it down interms we are comfortable with. It was easier when
technique was so vital to the production. We could
Jaimin Bhavasar
From the series Lost Life
Ahmedabad 2010
Digital
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understand the rich tonality of an Ansel Adams,
the seductive form of an Edward Weston, the
fluid luminosity of a Sally Mann, the complexity
of a Gilles Peress tableau or the vibrant lines
in a Raghu Rai image. We could appreciate the
mastery of the craftsperson. Admire the eye. It is
not merely the Cindy Sherman movie-still or the
matter-of-factness of the German contemporary
school that challenges this representation, but also
the snapshot and the family album that vies for
attention and finds itself on museum walls.
The traditional genres that codified photography
are no longer so distinct. Curators play with
this ambiguity, providing new insights intophotographic practice that has long resisted such
analysis, but there are hidden dangers to this
process. It has led to concerned photography being
considered pass. In the hallowed world of limited-
edition copies, the fine art print is about the object
and not its purpose. Form triumphs over content.
The amateur grabs of Abu Ghraib or the killing
of civilians, cleansed of blood and sanitised by
theory, have also become fodder for the art
connoisseur and so the artification of photography
has led to the de-politicisation of content.
Photography must go beyond the celebration
of technique. The posturing of experts must not
become a substitute for critical thinking.
In attempting to make photography halalto the artworld and in the rarified air of multimillion dollar
price tags, the social and political significance
of photography is something we risk losing.
Photography has repeatedly helped change the
course of history in its 170 years of existence. The
forced closure of recent photography shows in
Bangladesh, such as Into Exile: Tibet 1949 to 2009
and Crossfire, or indeed the sudden liberation
found in the Delhi Photo Festival in October
2011, are evidence of its continued power. It is
photographys trespass that will ensure that art has
relevance not only to the collector but also to the
person in the street.
Beyond Borders: a
phoTographers ThoughTs
tanv Msha
Before I begin working with the images in this
issue, I was brought to bear on the idea of the
theme itself. I was confronted with images of open
fields mysteriously cordoned off, wires with razor-
sharp barbs preventing the encroacher who dared
enter and gain access to a secret, other world.
When I think again, it may be a different image
with a different field and a different intruder,but there are always boundaries. Trespass itself
subsumes a violation of some sort - a usurper, an
intervention, the need to breach and break those
very barriers that the needle-like barbs stand for.
In this issue of PIX, the photographers have
gone far and wide on this very interpretation.
Chandan Gomes work focuses on the nature of
infringement on ones living space by inanimate
objects. Here the violator isnt even a living object,
the boundaries are not so sharp. Somehow, the
various layers of his life simultaneously coexist
to form a working tandem. In his scenario, this
defiance of conventional boundaries creates a
sense of equality, an uneasy cohesiveness, an adroit
sense of social disharmony. The result is a strangelyfunctional world created by a sense of discomfort.
In Jaimin Bhavasars work the open field
represents an opportunity, surrounded though
it is by a barrier of circumstance. Lost Life speaks
about the way in which the violation of innocence
and opportunity is a kind of obstruction to and
of identity. In his work, every photograph tells
a different talethe child who lost out on an
education or the woman who was forced into an
unhealthy livelihood by virtue of employment in
the waste disposal industry.
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Its interesting how the same term takes a
completely different perspective in Siddhartha
Hajras Opera Monorama, where the photographer
interprets the premise as a sort of movement
between two versions of the self. He shows the
viewer how performance can and does alter the
perception of transexuality, and in Monoramascase, perhaps allows him to better understand both
versions of him/herself. He pertinently raises the
issue of gendered identity, and how these at times
morph into one another. Here those barbs on the
wire are societys gauge of acceptance.
To trespass is also to transform. Mark Esplin
juxtaposes Indias ever transforming urban
landscape with the makers of this progress.
His series makes one wonder whether these faces
are able to benefit from this transformation and
break free or are they destined to be viewed as
trespassers themselves?
Devansh Jhaveri ominously hints at the
transient nature of mortality. He paints this sin
city-like picture of Varanasi, where life and death
coexist in the same space, making a crossover into
the afterworld eerily routine. The body breaks
free of its own life, moving into another space of
existence or absence. Where Devansh makes arelative comparison of the two worlds as life and
death, Aparna Jayakumar toys with the idea of an
alternate reality that is fictional. The otherworld
is not death, but just an artificial construct. Her
images of a film set raises questions of the real vis-
a-vis the imaginary, and how easy is it to transition
from one to the other?
Going by the vast interpretations of the
theme, Surendra Lawoti in the Special Feature
section on the Don River, brings out the inherent
connection between mans relationship with
nature and development. One may be able to break
From the series
Under Constructionby Arunima Singh
Construction Site 20
Ahmedabad 2009
206x6 colour negative scan
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From the
series
Under
Construction
by Arunima
Singh
Construction
Site 17
Ahmedabad
2009
206x6 colour
negative scan
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the conventional barriers and inhabit spaces that
may not ordinarily lend themselves to habitation,
but in doing so, how much is he being controlled
by nature? What are the considerations of a
marginalised community trying to break away from
the norms of living that are acceptable to most?
To end, Timothys Hills series titled Borderstakes me back to where I started. When I attempt
to visualise the notion of trespass, the encroacher
and space might be changing but in every scenario,
boundaries are the only constant. He pointedly
looks at these boundaries on a macro level through
Google map images taken over the Indo-Pak border.
Looking at this graphic series, one is forced to ask
the questionwould the notion of trespass exist
if there were no visible or symbolic barriers?
TransparenT Barriers
Suuch dumpawa/lUCidA
As I read an article about the last minute cancellation
of the video link between Salman Rushdie and
the Jaipur Literary Festival, I wondered how the
virtual presence of a person could scorn the people
protesting a physical one. But then images havealways occupied this rather interesting space
between absence and presence. And photography
in its production, dissemination and consumption
manages to confuse and intrude human constructs
that otherwise seem inviolable.
Since the time of its invention, photography
has been used as an instrument to record, examine
and encroach upon unfamiliar territories. Notions
of borders, private spaces and barriers have been
diluted by the proliferation of images. In fact the
production of images often depends solely upon
From the series
Under Constructionby Arunima Singh
Construction Site 3
Delhi 2010
206x6 colour negative scan
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gaining access to a space, either by permission
or invasion.
The camera was a willing accessory to the
satiating of the colonial eye as colonists invaded
different areas of the world. The state and
institutional machinery was not far behind in
imbibing and assimilating photography as an
instrument to the exercise of power. Photographic
identification became a norm. Lets reflect on
the intimacy that a portrait offers even if it is for
identification. The close examination of a persons
form even in two dimensions was previously
impossible without the physical proximity of the
person. Such an image though, created with thepermission of the subject, if distributed widely and
openly would constitute a breach of the subjects
privacy. And with information being stored and
distributed digitally- hacks and breaches are not a
far removed possibility.
What is seen more and more now is that
photography as an instrument for trespass is
being separated from the physical act of intrusion
itself. The imagery from satellite cameras is readily
available, webcams spread over large parts of
the world spy on people rather unnoticeably and
massive visual content is constantly being uploaded
on social networking sites, creating what might
seem a virtual double of the world, a repository to
mine images from.
This world though low on fidelity, is effortlessly
navigable with the rights of access still not
prescribed. The furor over Google Earth making
militarily bases visible was primarily because of thefact that this information limited to military and
intelligence agencies was now made freely accessible
to the public. The world is increasingly becoming a
panopticon with ostensibly transparent barriers
perhaps its trespass lies in this very transparency.
From the series
Under Construction
by Arunima Singh
Construction Site 2
Ahmedabad 2009
206x6 colour negative scan
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Jm BvLost Life
Poems by Rukmini Bhaya Nair
WHEN THE TIME COMES
Sometimes a potter
Sees imaginary water flow
In imaginary lines
From a broken-bellied pot
And then he knows
It is the end of day because
The clay in his hands
Is no longer clay but earth
At that moment the potter
Abandons his wheel
And follows the silver trickle
Until he reaches its source
Where the turning world has
Stopped turning and theres
No workleft to be done
But to imagine a universe
In which every pot ever made
Is mended and whole
And filled to its brim
With clear running water
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All images from the series
Lost Life
Ahmedabad 2010
Digital
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All images from the series
Lost Life
Ahmedabad 2010
Digital
URBAN PIGEON
Her nest a slum
mired in rusty plastic
ragged twigs, wires
of steely cloth
a universe of rubbish
In this jag of metal
poised on a concrete
ledge of sky
all things lose
their essential nature
Laying her perfect pebbles
round creamy jewels
within an abstract
circlet of grime
crooning
Pigeon is not a pigeon here
her gravelly voicehoarse with memory
recalls gutteral accents
forgotten woods
Blue flap of sky
waters shirr against
limestone, and tucked
beneath her discoloured
wing, light fluffy heads
Chirruping
the unmixed texture
of a primitive birth
skiey evanescent
where pigeon nests
Dim suburbs collapse
and forests springby sudden instinct
sharp as a claw, call it
Love - or what you will
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BEDTIME STORY
Observe the dreaming tumult
Of children on a summer night
For in that dimly sculpted light
You will spot the corpulent arm
Of a Roman angel poised in flight
His wings lift in a frieze of death
Over a calm field of sheets reveal
In the sleeping angles of a child
The jerky format of a soldiers wild
Collapse or Pompeii city captured asIt stood in a tremor of fire beguiled
On summer nights this frieze of death.
MAKING ENDS MEET
This job is for the women.
To stretch out a thin meal
In a poor country, waters
Needed to complete the deal.
Added to precious dal, and
Rice, it makes these grow.It is the stuff her stick-
Fingers knead into dough.
These are the tricks shes
Learnt, to eke things out.
But when water is scarce
A woman must go without.
That purple gem, madness,
Do you see it coruscating
At her throat? It is worn
By women in queues, waiting
At city water-pumps, pulling
Buckets from mud-filled wells.And by the woman who has
nothing
Left for her child, for herself.
In her, the serpent swallows
Its own tail, endlessly, and
The lovely gold of her laugh
Trickles away, grey, stagnant.
All said and done, a poem
Is water in a womans hands.
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Mk e
and elusive manifests itself on the same streets
and pavements that held the traffic of a modern,
developed India just hours before: the populationof Delhis homeless people.
Little of Indias celebrated economic growth
reaches these people. According to studies,
New Delhi is often referred to as one of Indias
most progressive cities. Modern shopping
complexes and relative privileges fill the citystreets of central Delhi. Once the sun sets
behind the metropolis however, a phantom city
reveals itself. A second population - nocturnal,
City Bilder
All diptychs from the series
City Builders
New Delhi, 2010
Digital
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representative of the true state of the population,
claim that over 100,000 people live homeless in
Delhi. A 2001 census enumerated 1.94 millionhomeless people in India. Despite this alarming
figure, the state provides little support for them.
Government shelters for example, operating at
51% of respondents claimed they resorted to
homelessness due to unemployment, and the
need to send money home.In the year 2000, there was a reported
housing shortage of 41 million units. Official
estimates, widely regarded as drastically under-
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All diptychs from the series
City Builders
New Delhi, 2010
Digital
as construction work, rickshaw pulling, domestic
work and street vending. Their weak bargaining
power results in poor wages, vastly below the
minimum wage. However without their sweat,blood and forced input New Delhi would not have
its modern appearance. They are more often then
not, Delhis unknown city builders.
maximum capacity, can only accommodate 3%
of Delhis homeless population. Furthermore,
these shelters are only available in Indias Capital,
despite their national need.The marginalisation of homeless people
does not exclude them from exploitation. Many
survive through casual, unprotected labour such
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All diptychs from the series
City Builders
New Delhi, 2010
Digital
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All diptychs from the series
City Builders
New Delhi, 2010
Digital
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C gm
Though I did my schooling and college from
so-called prestigious institutions catering to
the elite, I grew up in a single room house in a
relatively modest neighbourhood in Delhi. Each
day presented me with stark and contrasting
experiences that made it difficult for me to
reconcile the identity of my two worlds. I began
feeling introverted, and with time I stopped
acknowledging both spaces as part of oneworld, and felt as though I was sacrificing my
home space.
I rebelled against the idea of home. But any
act of rebellion at some point in its trajectory
encounters the possibility of reconciliation.
These photos are my attempts at reconciling
the idea of home with my evolving identity. For
me, they represent ways of breaching my own
constructed barriers and relationship with
this space.
Having only a few friends, I spent a majority
of my time with objects. I perceive them as
objective extensions of my personality. Having
become a stranger at home, I found it immensely
difficult to photograph my family. I was metwith resistance and a bit of hostility too. So the
clearest path that presented itself to me was to
do it through objects.
There Are Things I Call Home
All images fromthe series There are
things I call home
Home (Delhi)
2010-ongoing
Digital
Right: Photograph of
my late grandfather
lying on the bedduring the weekly
house cleaning
exercise, October
2010
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To me, the objects in these photographs paint
a portrait of my family and speak of the estranged
relationship I share with themof distances and
uncertainties that separate us. Every photographhints at a sense of tension, conflict; perhaps the
pain of neglect. It is my foray into my own house
and yet I feel like I am trespassing.
And so, there lies an alienated sense of
intimacy. This photo essay is an attempt at
reclaiming this intimacy; an attempt to embrace
long lost memories, a forgotten childhood.
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All images from the series
There are things I call home
Home (Delhi) 2010-ongoing
Digital
Facing page: I share my study
table with my grandmothers
utensils, December 2011
Right: My editing desk during the
monsoons; the roof occasionally
leaks during the rains.
July 2011
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you. Apparently, people still read poetry. But, I do
have the sweat-soaked underwear of a one-night
stand it used to smell of fresh-lime Cinthol,
of kabab coals extinguished at midnight. No,
it doesnt anymore. It smells of naphthalene
balls and sandalwood. Just touching it jerks mewith flashes of a golden pillow, a family pack of
strawberry ice-cream and a slinking-away
5 am shadow.
Text by Joshua Muyiwa
This is a map. I believe it is to be hung*.
Our grandmothers and the queers have always
had it right: memories arent obedient; they must
always be nudged forward with the familiar. The
tucked-away salt-and-pepper shakers in embrace
were bought at the Big Bazaar sale, with a lover,and were the only things we bought at the store
before being herded out by bargaining aunties
and cola-intravenoused kids. Shut up, I cant tell
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All images from the series
There are things I call home
Home (Delhi) 2010-ongoing
Digital
Facing page: A younger me
on the kitchen wall, October
2010
Above: Store Room, February
2011
the piles of shoes (my uncle used to get a new
pair for every birthday, rationed, like milestones;
he eventually owned only 40 pairs), the images
of Jesusare rendered recognizable. The dead
spring out of photographs, they lie in bed next to
us, smooth out the clutter, huddle up and say, I
am here now, right here.* A line from The Underground Man by Mick Jackson
My grandmother has the ribboned bows of
her three childrens first haircuts. The two boys
strands are knotted with blue and her daughters
with red. And all her grandchildren have specific
coloursmine is purple. My grandfather says,
she is a collector-memsahib, every corner is
a storehouse. But to her, it is affirmation. It isthe knowing, that there are signposts, little
archaeological boards explaining her to her. It is
just that the familiar objectsthe tea-strainer,
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All images from the series There
are things I call home
Home (Delhi) 2010-ongoing
Digital
Above: (left) Passport size
photographs of my family on my
almirah, November 2011; (right)
Shoe rack, Store room, April 2011
Facing page: Calendar and the
clock, kitchen, August 2011
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st hj
Set no store by what you see,
We are just portraits of the space we occupy
CP Surendran
Monorama or Rajuda (as he is commonly called
in his neighbourhood), is a transgendered person
who performs in closed community spaces
during the spring season which is associated
with Sitala puja. It was on one such spring
evening that I first met Monorama at her home
in north Calcutta. She possessed a quiet senseof dignity and pride. I could sense that she was
very busy - her phone kept ringing and she had
many visitorsmostly clients from different
Opera Monorama
All images from the series
Opera Monorama
Calcutta & Howrah,
2008-2010
35mm digital; 35mm &
120mm film
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neighborhoods in and around the city, who
wanted to make a booking for her to perform
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All images from the series
Opera Monorama
Calcutta & Howrah, 2008-2010
35mm digital; 35mm & 120mm film
Sitala puja accompanied by her performance of
the Sitalamangal(or the sacred story of Sitala
the goddess). Historically, it is believed that the
onset of spring is linked with the much dreaded
Goddess Sitala, who is the mother of springdiseases, and a whole range of diseases known as
basanta (which is also the word for spring) are her
children or followers. Sitala is widely worshiped in
Eastern India, where, until recently, the dreaded
small pox was a killer disease.
Monorama invited me to one of her
performances in a south Calcutta neighbourhood
the following evening. This was the beginning
of my long but interspersed association with
Monorama and her Opera (Opera here reflects a
very local Bengali adaptation of the English word,
referring to musical theatre with no classical
pretensions).
I was intrigued by the complexity of her life,
how her identity and gender changed during herperformance as a goddess, and how the socio-
political challenges presented to the eunuch
(hijra) community in India also had a role to play.
So which is the real Monorama? Each role she
performs remains real only in a fluid state, never
quite the same at the next moment.
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All images from the series
Opera Monorama
Calcutta & Howrah, 2008-2010
35mm digital; 35mm & 120mm film
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All images from the seriesOpera Monorama
Calcutta & Howrah, 2008-2010
35mm digital; 35mm & 120mm film
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All images from the series
Opera Monorama
Calcutta & Howrah, 2008-2010
35mm digital; 35mm & 120mm film
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Tmt h
This series of work documents the border
between India and Pakistan using
re-appropriated satellite images. Each
image shows a body of water that
transcends the man-made border. Man
cannot freely cross the border he put in
place. However, nature ignores this and
flows from one side to the other. The
border represents a tension between the
two lands, but the rivers represent
a coming together, an attachment,
a free-flowing element of life.
The satellite images from the internet
allow for another labelling of the land.
Border: India/Pakistan[a river rns throgh it]
All images from the
series Border: India/
Pakistan [a river runs
through it]
2011
10x10 Digital C-Type
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The land belongs to the two countries; however
the representation of the border in image form
has now been labelled as the companys property.
It appears that land and even the representation
of land has a lot to do with notions of ownership
and copyright.
The project was inspired by an interest in
active land borders. I was interested in the
way man could be controlled by socio-political
borders, yet nature flows. By using these images
I have been able to access a view of the border
that allows one a vantage point of both sides.
This view is considered to be an impartial view
of the border, a way of documenting the land
without judgement of the political situation.
The images attempt to marginalise the border
by showing the seamlessness of the natural
landscape across the border.
All images from the series
Border: India/Pakistan [ariver runs through it]
2011
10x10 Digital C-Type
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All images from the series
Border: India/Pakistan [ariver runs through it]
2011
10x10 Digital C-Type
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All images from the series
Postcards Back Home (part
of a larger exhibition Trees
Cant Walk)
Zurich January-June 2011,
120 and 35mm
a
Jkm
I wanted to explore the fine line that exists
between what is real and that which is
constructed. I took these pictures on a Bollywood
film set in Peth, Maharashtra. The intention ofthe Director was to recreate an African hamlet in
India as shooting in Angola, where the scripted
scene was set, was impossible given the turbulent
political situation.
The setting was surreal; there were black
Portuguese actors who played the leads and
a motley crew of extrasstudents from the
University of Pune, Colaba locals, tourists and
Siddhis from Gujarat amongst others. It had been
quite a task for the Casting Director to find such
On the Wrong Side of the Eqator
All images from the seriesOn the Wrong Side of the Equator
Peth, Maharashtra, 2008
35mm film and digital
P i X | 47
a large number of black people in and around
Mumbai. Many of them were Nigerian, some
Kenyan and Eritrean, but very few Angolan. This
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y y g
fact however didnt matter to the casting team, as
long as they all looked African. Thrown together
only because of their shared colour, they weremeeting each other for the first time in an obscure
village in Maharashtra.
I had been hired by the cinematographer
to shoot publicity stills on the film set at dusk,
that window of beautiful light right after sunset.
The actors and extras would rehearse the
choreographed action stunts through the day
to be captured for a few minutes every evening..
Eventually there was a sense of community that
grew between the cast members.
I noticed a new dynamic rising in a an
artificially constructed situation. I felt compelled
to document some of these new relationships, to
make pictures of these individuals in these spaces
and photograph people between rehearsals and
the actual filming.
As is common in films, the sequence was
eventually edited out of the film, so no one other
than the film crew knew about it. When I printed
some of the images, I realised with delight that
people believed I had, in fact, been to Africa to take
these photographs!
Many questions came to the fore in my mind,such as the authenticity of images, and whether
what we see in images represents the underlying
reality of the situation on the ground. I believe
there are always surprises
All images from the series
On the Wrong Side of the EquatorPeth, Maharashtra, 2008
35mm film and digital
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All images from the series
On the Wrong Side of the Equator
Peth, Maharashtra, 2008
35mm film and digital
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dv
JvAnd forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive
those who trespass against us
The word itself holds a dual meaning for me, the
first being related to physical property and the
second, a mental space that one transgresses.
The images are meant to inflict a sense of
pain or perhaps loneliness, even if it is done in
politically incorrect ways.
Hindu cremation rituals may seem novel andsacred to many, but for me it was a recognition of
the sanctity of life. What was indeed novel for me
was being face to face with the death of a total
stranger. Seeing the way the people around me
were being so casual in such trying moments led
me to question whether I was a voyeur or whether
I was so insignificant to them that they simply
couldnt care about my intrusion. I began to see
myself as part of a larger picture, ruminating
on ideas of life and death. The ominous scenes
All images
from the
series
TrespassVaranasi,
2011
Digital
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which form the series are in hindsight my worst
nightmare which the viewers may enjoy or
disassociate with, based on their point of view.
Death touches everyone. The loneliness and
isolation during the twilight of ones life is the
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underlying score in this series of images.
From the very first cries of people who have
lost their loved ones, to the procession of flames
that carry away their souls, I was there, observing
them. If the babble of familiarity is left a while in
the quiet of an unknown place, the noise lessens
and sights and sounds become clearer.
All images from the seriesTrespass
Varanasi, 2011
Digital
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All images from the
series Trespass
Varanasi, 2011
Digital
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s lwt
I have been photographing the five-kilometerlength of the Don River in Toronto, Ontario
for the last four years. My focus has been on
the makeshift shelters that dot the river, theirresidents and the people who use the area for
recreation. The river runs through the Don Valley,
Don River
SPECIAL FEATuRE
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All images from the series
Don River
Toronto, 2009-2010
4x5 view camera
Facing page: List of Needs
(Inside Shelter 17)
Right:Joe Kelly
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All images from the series
Don River
Toronto, 2009-2010
4x5 view camera
Facing page: (left) Shelter7 (Spring);(right) Untitled
Above: Shelter 5
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which is part of the Toronto ravine system
created at the end of the last ice age some 12,000
years ago. The area I have been photographing
separates Downtown Toronto and the eastern
part of the city.
In 2008, I had recently immigrated to Toronto.
The recognition of home in these shelters
immediately drew me in. I wanted to understand
how people who do not have a home-make one.
Hence at a very personal level, this work is about
making a home. Engaging with the landscape of
the Don Valley, its residents and the recreational
users was my way of grounding myself in this new
landscape.
The Don is one of the most urbanised river
watersheds in Canada and a prime environmentfor sheltering the homeless. Don Valley has a
long history as a place to dump waste materials.
In fact there are over 40 old dumping sites along
the river. The river was also used to dispose of
industrial waste, which would eventually be
carried into Lake Ontario. And as for the city
residents, the place was convenient for waste
disposal because the features of the ravine made
it easily out of sight and out of mind.
The landscape has a history of sheltering
marginalised existence.
As the landscape is situated in the heart of the
city, there is a precarious tussle between nature
and urbanisation. If you look at the Don Valley,
you will notice it is a fragile land. Encroaching
urban concrete jungles surround the green space
from all directions. Sometimes it seems to me
that it is inevitable that this beautiful greenspace is going to be consumed by concrete. This
landscape exhumes frailty.
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All images from the series
Don River
Toronto, 2009-2010
4x5 view camera
Left:Paul Foster
Below left: Shelter 13
Below right: Shelter 18
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Pp
JaImIn bhavasar did his MA in Applied
Arts at Maharaja Saajirao Uniersit
(MSU), Baroda and then
studied photoraph desin at the
National Institute of Desin (NID),
Ahmedabad. He is currentl based in
in New york Cit, the villa Borhese in
Rome and recentl at the Strand Art Room
and Kala ghoda Cafe+galler in Mumbai.
Her first book of photoraphs is due to be
published in Milan next ear.
devansh JhaverI is an Ahmedabad
based freelance photorapher who mainl
the Best Photo Books of the ear 2011
compilation b American Photo Maazine.
Alam is currentl establishin archies on
the 1971 war of liberation of Banladesh
and settin up a rural journalism network in
the countr.
rukmInI bhaya naIr is Professor of
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Ahmedabad where he works as a freelance
photorapher and raphic desiner.
mark esPLIn is a Photojournalist and
Multimedia producer from the UK,
currentl based in Beijin, China.
Chandan gomes has done his Bachelors in
Philosoph from St. Stephens Collee, Delhi.
He is the recipient of the prestiious India
Habitat Centre Fellowship for Photoraph
2011. Photoraphs from his awarded essa
were part of the Delhi Photo Festial.
sIddhartha haJra has been workin
on issues dealin with sexualit, ender,
disabilit and marinalised roups and
communities. He has been exhibited
and published both nationall and
internationall. He is currentl pursuin
his PhD and teachin Sociolo in
Calcutta.tImothy hILL is a isual artist, educated
in photoraphic stud at Southampton
Solent Uniersit and UCA Farnham. Hill
has exhibited internationall and founded
the publishin project [keep] in 2010.
Throuh the [keep] project, Hill has worked
with artists from around the world. Hill has
recentl moed to Melbourne where he
continues to create and exhibit work.aParna Jayakumar is a freelance
photorapher based in Mumbai. She
contributes to Travel+Leisure, CNN
Traveller, cnngo.com, Verve, Better Interiors,
Femina and other publications. She has
also shot the publicit stills for Indian
films such as Sooni Taraporealas Little
Zizou and vishal Bhardwajs Kaminey.
Aparna was amon Indias fie nominees
for the international photoraph award
Prix Pictet in 2009. She has had her
photoraphs exhibited at the Aeean
Center in Paros, greece, the Lincoln Center
shoots trael and portraiture. Apart from
personal projects he does commissioned
fashion editorials and trael photoraph.
His current projects include a
documentar audio-ideo on Ramleela and
the classical dances of India.
surendra LawotI studied photoraph
in Chicao and Boston. Toronto has
been his home since 2008. Human
frailt, miration, sense of lonin and
belonin are reccurrin themes in his
work. His work has been widel exhibited
in Toronto, Montreal, Chicao, Boston,
Medellin, Colombia and in Kathmandu.
galler Kaafas in Boston represents him.
wi
shahIduL aLam is photorapher, writer,
curator and actiist. A former president ofthe Banladesh Photoraphic Societ, Alam
set up the award winnin Drik aenc, the
Banladesh Photoraphic Institute and
Pathshala, the South Asian Media Academ.
Director of the Chobi Mela festial and
chairman of Majorit World Aenc,
Alams work has been exhibited in alleries
such as MOMA in New york, the Centre
geores Pompidou in Paris, the RoalAlbert Hall in London and The Museum of
Contemporar Arts in Tehran. Alam has
been a speaker at US uniersities, Harard,
Stanford and UCLA, Oxford and Cambride
uniersities in the UK and museums such
as Tate Modern in the UK and Fotomuseum
Winterthur in Switzerland. He has been a
jur member in prestiious international
contests, includin World Press Photo,
which he chaired and Prix Pictet, chaired
b Kofi Annan. His recent book My Journey
as a Witness has been published b the
Italian fine art publisher Skira and listed in
Linuistics and Enlish at IIT Delhi. She
receied her Ph.D. from the Uniersit
of Cambride and a second honorar
doctorate from the Uniersit of Antwerp
in 2006 for her contributions to linuistics
and literar theor. She has lectured at
uniersities from Aarhus to Xinxian and
read her poetr, which has been translated
into Chinese, Swedish, Macedonian and
other lanuaes, at enues from Sinapore
to Stanford. Author of seeral academic
books and winner of man awards includin
the First Prize in the All-India Poetr
Societ/British Council, she has published
three olumes of poetr with Penuin (The
Hyoid Bone, 1992; The Ayodhya Cantos,
1999; Yellow Hibiscus, 2004).
tanvI mIshra is a freelance documentar
photorapher based in New Delhi, India.Trained as an economist, she feels her
backround in the social sciences impacts
her choices as a isual storteller. She is
published in the Sunday Guardian, Time
Out, The Climate Group Publications
amon others and has worked with
arious NgOs includin Praah/vSO UK.
In 2011, she was awarded in the Dail Life
cateor of the Media Foundation of IndiaPress Photoraph Awards for her photo
essa Im oin to die a tonawallah.
Joshua muyIwa started writin because
he was told, it is time to stop seemin
art and pretentious and actuall earn the
tas b doin somethin. He is queer. In
Banalore, hes either at Koshs drinkin
tea, smokin outside, drinkin rum & coke
at Chin Lun or workin as Dance Editor
at TimeOut Bengaluru. In Januar 2012 he
won the Toto Award for Creatie Writin in
Enlish for The Catalogue, a series of poems
on the histor of photoraph and poetr.
is the theme for the next quarter
FEROZSHAH KOTLA YAWN
by Kaushik Ramaswamy
Digital
freedom
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PIX is about inestiatin and enain with broad and expansie fields of contemporar photoraphicpractice in India, ranin from the application, conceptual standin and adaptabilit of photoraph to its
subjects: its moement, transmission, appropriation and distinct relation to the allied arts. The quarterl
seeks not onl to present photoraph in temporal, spatial or historical terms, but also in personal, self-
conscious and aesthetic was.
Fr eedom : L Iber ty , P r IvIL eg e, P ower ,
abandon, oP P or tu nIty
Freedom: As much a philosoph, an ethics ofenaement, as an act, the notion of Freedomseeks to arrie at a series of photoraphs thatma hihliht how a circumstance, a point of
iew or een an idea ma liberate one. Howdoes freedom or the lack of impact oureerda lies? The isualization of Freedomcan be in the wa people find was to expressthemseles throuh actions, throuh questionsof identit, throuh forms of resistance, oreen throuh the power of an imae, a portraitthat could be considered unconentional in asense. It can be about understandin the self
within the larer context of societ whatare the thins that drie us, that make us raeaainst known barriers? What makes us freeto be who we are? These are onl some was
in which the theme ma be interpreted it isopen to our personal understandin of title aswell, ien there is a brief accompanin note.
In a broader sense, we are trin to presentcontemporar practices of photoraphers inIndia, and identif the cultural exchanes inphotoraph. Is there a common round ofreference? Professionals, enthusiasts andamateurs are free to appl.
LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS:April 1, 2012
For more information isitwww.pixquarterl.inor email: [email protected]
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