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Chobi Mela VII: Dhaka revisited

by Pablo Bartholomew
More photos at Le Journal De La Photographie

Pablo Bartholomew ? Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World

What is about Chobi Mela that makes it special and important?
So what makes me come back to Chobi Mela, this pioneering festival for photography in Asia? It is the question that I ask myself, now that I am here in Dhaka setting up both my father?s and my exhibitions. Obviously it is the opportunity to show the works and be part of discussions that may provide and lead up to good dialogues and debates. But the fact that the last time I was here was such an important reference point is something that I would like to share. Continue reading

B. S. Shivaraju (Cop Shiva) at Chobi Mela VII

Photo by B.S. Shivaraju (Cop Shiva)

B. S. Shivaraju (Cop Shiva)
B. S. Shivaraju AKA Cop Shiva is a policeman in real life and learnt photography to document events. He started his photography career by being a part of an alternative art collective called 1.SHANHTIROAD STUDIO/GALLERY.?His work on Bagadehalli Basavaraj as a Gandhi impersonator is an ongoing project that looks at Gandhi?s ideals in contemporary India. His portfolio includes a series of intimate portraits of urban migrants, people of alternative sexuality, street performers and others living in the hinterland of urban and rural conflict. Shiva continues to capture the diversity of humans who live on the edge and represent the spirit of our times.
Visit Cop Shiva?s website:?http://www.lightstalkers.org/cop-shiva

Christopher Pinney to Attend Chobi Mela

Christopher Pinney

Lakshmi Photo by Christopher Pinney

Christopher Pinney
Christopher Pinney ? Discussion: Archiving project in India
Saturday, 26 January, 4:30PM, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy
Christopher Pinney ? Workshop: Transformations in the History of Photography
28-29 January, Speed 3
Christopher Pinney is an anthropologist and art historian. He is currently Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture at University College London. His research interests cover the art and visual culture of South Asia, with a particular focus on the history of photography.
?Visual history?s modality is akin to psychoanalysis ? it tells us something about repressed histories that are important, but disavowed by standard textual history.? ??Christopher Pinney
Visit Christopher Pinney?s website:?http://christopherpinney.com/
Chobi Mela blog

Koodankulam: A Nuclear Plant in My Backyard

by Amirtharaj Stephen

I come from a village called Kavalkinaru in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, not very far from Kanniyakumari. My father was employed at a Heavy Water Plant in Tuticorin and I spent the first 24 years of my life in the Atomic Energy Township there. I was always told by the people in my township that nuclear energy was safe and that it was the future. I believed them.

A coast guard aeroplane flies low over protesting villagers who ventured into the sea. September 13, 2012. Continue reading “Koodankulam: A Nuclear Plant in My Backyard”

A Day in Delhi

Weekend Portfolios

New Delhi 2013

Millenium Park, Delhi ? Sybile Girault

Le Journal de la Photographie would like to invite you to spend a day in Delhi. Via interviews with heads of galleries, foundations, agencies and photo festivals, we?ll be introducing you to some of the most important figures in contemporary Indian photography. This special report was prepared by our India correspondent, Sybile Girault, with the help of Juliette Deschodt. So, Namaste, and welcome to India! Continue reading

Braveheart girl lit a flame

Photographs and text by Subrata Biswas

India was stunned when a 23 year old female physiotherapy intern was beaten and brutally gang raped by six men on a moving bus in New Delhi on 16 December, 2012 and thrown out of the vehicle, almost dead. She was first taken to Safdarjang Hospital, received multiple surgeries, and was placed on mechanical ventilation. Though still critical, the victim tried her best to communicate with her doctors by writing notes. On 26 December, 2012 she was moved to Singapore for further treatment, where she died on 29 December while undergoing emergency treatment for brain and gastrointestinal damage from the assault.

Nirbhaya

by Ina Puri

The Indian flag will not fly at half-mast to mark the passing of a young woman on the 29^th of December 2012.
If permission is given, then people will gather at Jantar Mantar at 11.00am to condone the death of the unnamed ?rape victim? at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore, in the wee hours of the morning.
Wreaths will be laid, candles lit and speeches made in her memory.
Who knows, there may even be an award or two for her as the Government publicly acknowledges her fight against death.
And in our memories, she will remain the young martyr, who battled against all odds till her body finally gave up, battered and broken beyond repair. Continue reading “Nirbhaya”

Forging Airline Tickets for Fun and Public Service

Dispatches from India – part 3
By Anu Garg

After a week in India attending a wedding, I was ready to head home to Seattle. As I approached the entrance to the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, I had my passport and my travel cheat-sheet out. I knew you need a passport and a copy of your itinerary even to enter an airport in India. The security guard at the entrance inquired, “Passport and ticket?”
I handed him my passport and cheat-sheet on which I cram all my travel information (itinerary, frequent flier numbers, phone numbers, addresses, and other travel information), all on a single sheet. I may have to reduce margins, but I make sure that everything fits on no more than one sheet of paper.
The security man ignored the passport and pored through the flight info on the sheet and asked, “Where’s the passenger name on the ticket?” I told him that it had the flight info, but no need to add my name to the sheet as I already knew my name.
“Sir, I can’t let you in without your name on this.”
“But I have traveled in the past without any problem.”
“Sir, we have to follow the rules.” Apparently security had been tightened. Continue reading “Forging Airline Tickets for Fun and Public Service”

River Bloom

By Ranjit Hoskote.

Art in America Column: Atlas Bombay (extract)

If you think of South Asian art today, you likely focus on the subcontinent?s metropolitan centers; on the gallery scenes in Bombay, New Delhi and Bangalore in India, and on artists? circles in Karachi and Lahore in Pakistan. Not surprisingly, it?s the artists who work in these populous, kaleidoscopic hubs of activity, transiting between there and West Europe and North America, who are most often selected by curators to embody the specificity of their place and time.
But where, I suspect, many curators are not yet looking is several thousand miles away from South Asia?s metropolitan centers, in the northeast of India and in Bangladesh, at the geographical edge where the South Asian subcontinent shades away into the Himalayan foothills of Tibet to the north and the tropical lushness of Burma and Thailand to the south. Continue reading “River Bloom”

Site Imaginaries

Kochi Muziris Biennale Symposium
Date: December 15th – 16th
Venue: Outset Carnoustie Pavilion ? Aspinwall
Co-organised by: Marieke Van Hal (Biennial Foundation)
Symposium advisors: Gayatri Sinha (Critical Collective), Paul Domela (Liverpool Biennial)

The location of India?s first biennale in Kochi marks a seismic in the way art will be seen in the subcontinent. In replacing the model of a state supported metropolitan exposition ? that continued from the late 1960s to the early 2000s ? the Kochi Muziris Biennale celebrates the political and cultural aggrandisement of the region. In terms of curatorial initiative it also claims another level for the artist in the domain of entrepreneurial activism.

Bird's nest 0704 — Erase by Srinivasa Prasad. Photo Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World

The challenge for the new biennale in South Asia is not to reflect global parameters; rather it is to create sense of an aesthetic moment as it unfolds before us. At the same time shifts in location and structure imply a shift in politics in India as much as in art. Continue reading