PIX Trespass Spread.pdf

7/29/2019 PIX Trespass Spread.pdf

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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


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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


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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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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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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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City Builders

New Delhi, 2010

Digital

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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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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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There are things I call home


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


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


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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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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Opera Monorama



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All images from the seriesOpera Monorama



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Opera Monorama



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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.


Border: India/Pakistan [ariver runs through it]

2011


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Border: India/Pakistan [ariver runs through it]

2011


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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


On the Wrong Side of the EquatorPeth, Maharashtra, 2008


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On the Wrong Side of the Equator

Peth, Maharashtra, 2008


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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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56 | P i X

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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Don River

Toronto, 2009-2010

4x5 view camera

Facing page: List of Needs

(Inside Shelter 17)

Right:Joe Kelly

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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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Don River

Toronto, 2009-2010

4x5 view camera

Left:Paul Foster

Below left: Shelter 13

Below right: Shelter 18

66 | P i X

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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