Published in conjunction with the FotoFest 2018 Biennial, India/Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art features 48 contemporary artists and collectives, all working in dialogue with the history and emerging future of India and its people.
Presented as an impressive 300-page hardback tome and bursting with some 200 colour photos, the book—designed by HvADesign in New York—has been edited by FotoFest executive director and curator Steven Evans, with absorbing essays on the state of Indian contemporary art coming from local experts Zahid R. Chaudhary, Sunil Gupta, and Gayatri Sinha.
Focussing on contemporary moments through a range of disciplines including art photography, new media, installation, moving image, journalism, and documentary photography, India/Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art addresses the last 20 years of contemporary art in India; the shifting focus of the lens as a fine art medium; South Asia’s emergence as a creative force; and how the changing sociopolitical dynamic of the country is shaping its art talents. “As a large, multilingual subcontinent, India has always relied on images to maintain a cohesive whole across myriad subcultures, regions, castes, and languages,” explains lead curator Sunil Gupta.
“The introduction of photomechanical imaging in the nineteenth century enabled the rapid reproduction and dissemination of both spiritual and scientific ideals,” he continues. “Photography for most of its history was too expensive and technical, and was left in the hands of ‘experts’—until the birth of digital technologies. The book addresses the legacy of the last 20 years, a period when photography and moving image media have been consistently included within critical exhibitions of fine art.”
Honing in on themes of caste and class; gender and sexuality; activism and conflict; racism, religion, and nationalism; and new technologies via contemporary artists including Gigi Scaria, Rashmi Kaleka, Prince Varughese Thomas, and Roshini Kempadoo, India/Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art—published in collaboration with Schilt Publishing—is a vital document of the unfolding emergence of India’s progressive art movement.
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Tenzing Dakpa (Delhi, India), Return, 2016. From the series The Hotel
Tenzing Dakpa (Delhi, India) , Arrival, 2016. From the series The Hotel
Arun Vijai Mathavan (Ahmedabad, India), Untitled, from the series Millennia of Oppression, 2016
Sandip Kuriakose (Delhi, India), Interested, 2017. From the series NPNR.
Sohrab Hura (Delhi, India) From the series The Levee, 2016
Sohrab Hura, Pier 24, and Postcards from America
Vicky Roy (Delhi, India),
Ravi, Seven Years Old, Begging for a Living near Indian Institute of Technology Flyover, New Delhi
.
From the series Street Dreams, 2005-2008
Sandip Kuriakose (Delhi, India), 015, from the series It has the Appearance of a Deliberate Transgression, 2017
Vidisha Saini (Delhi, India), Mr. Shekar House, 2012. From the series You Like Mr. Shekar
Vinit Gupta (Delhi, India) From the series Where They Belong, 2013-2017
Vinit Gupta (Delhi, India) From the series Where They Belong, 2013-2017
Asif Khan (Delhi, India),
Relief camp for displaced persons. While most mainstream narratives focused on reporting from larger camps, a sizeable number of such smaller camps dotted the district’s geography, December 2013, Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India.
From the series Muzaffarnagar, 2013-2014
Anoop Ray (Delhi, India),
Untitled, October 2011.
From the series Friends and Their Friends, 2010-2015
Nandini Valli Muthiah (Chennai, India),
Reassurance, 2006.
From the Definite Reincarnate, 2003-2006
Vicky Roy (Delhi, India)
, Beggars, Next to Washing line, New Delhi Railway Station, 2005.
From the series Street Dreams, 2005-2008
INDIA: Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art
Published by FotoFest International & Schilt Publishing, March 2018
Asif Khan (Delhi, India), Children studying at a makeshift school imparting Quran recitation classes. In the absence of primary schools at the newly constructed rehabilitation colonies, such schools provided basic education facilities, March 2014, Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India. From the series Muzaffarnagar, 2013-2014
