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The Sahmat Collective: Art and Activism in India since 1989

Arushi Vats Jan 18, 2021

A landmark event presenting an exhaustive survey of the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat)’s history and practices since its formation in 1989, the exhibition drew upon photographs as evidentiary and illustrative documents.

Juju Bhai Dhakhwa: Keeper of Memories

Arushi Vats Jan 18, 2021

Displayed at the inaugural Photo Kathmandu in 2015, Juju Bhai Dhakhwa’s personal archive of photographs were showcased in the very location they were shot—the streets of Patan and the Dhakhwa home.

The Film Poster as Art Object: Excerpt from Ranjani Mazumdar’s The Bombay Film Poster

Ketaki Varma Jan 18, 2021

The film poster occupies an important place within the world of cinema, in India and around the world, operating as an object of publicity from the beginning of the twentieth-century till today.

Archiving Film: Notes on Project Cinema City

Ketaki Varma Jan 19, 2021

Project Cinema City (2008-13) is arguably the most ambitious of all the artistic initiatives concerned with documenting cinema in India so far.

A Photogenetic Line: CAMP’s Archival Photo Installation

Gulmehar Dhillon Jan 25, 2021

A Photogenetic Line reincarnates archival documents and reorganises them to construct a horizontal and disjointed historical narrative, highlighting coincidences and contradictions through its non-linear retelling.

M. Sain of Darjeeling: The Painted Photographs of Bengal

Ankan Kazi Jan 25, 2021

From the early twentieth-century, painted photographs were widely produced, distributed and collected. They represented a way of balancing the style of painting with the practice of photography.

Film as Art (Objects): Notes on Project Cinema City

Ketaki Varma Feb 08, 2021

Of the several ideas proposed by Project Cinema City, many were concerned with the place of the still image within the visual culture of cinema.

Lobby Cards: Preserving Cinema through Still Image

Ketaki Varma Feb 09, 2021

Before the age of television and the internet, much of film publicity relied on the still image; posters, lobby cards, song booklets, postcards and other printed material often featured photographs from the film.

The Agrarian Revolution and Tina Modotti: In Conversation with Dr Savitri Sawhney

Anisha Baid Feb 09, 2021

In this continuing conversation with Savitri Sawhney, we dwell on Pandurang Khankhoje’s work as an agrarian–responsible for the establishment of more than thirty free agricultural schools in Mexico.

Finding Archives Where There Are None: Documenting a Displaced Existence in the Forests of Chitwan

Anisha Baid Feb 10, 2021

As an online presentation of sustained anthropological and photographic research, the website provokes the documentary modality, weaving together the various social realities of a wounded landscape.

Indigenous Pasts, Sustainable Futures: Images from The Skin of Chitwan

Anisha Baid Feb 10, 2021

The Skin of Chitwan, an online exhibition by the Nepal Picture Library is a manifestation of the ongoing research project Indigenous Pasts, Sustainable Futures that attempts to document, archive and share Nepal’s marginalised histories.

Troubling Empire: Bakirathi Mani on Seher Shah

Arushi Vats Feb 11, 2021

Trained in architecture and fine arts, Seher Shah is concerned with the legacies of built structures and the genealogies of power embedded in constructed matter.

Collecting the World: Cigarette Cards in South Asia

Ankan Kazi Feb 11, 2021

Cigarette cards were a fun, tactile way of creating affective bonds between tobacco companies and their customers.

Cigarette Cards: Mapping Relations between Consumers, Colonialism and Trade

Ankan Kazi Feb 12, 2021

Tobacco companies often sought to create narratives through the cigarette card series they produced—whether locating them in the colonies or the metropolitan centers.

The First Women of the Institution: Homai Vyarawalla’s Photographs of Early Women’s Colleges in India

Anisha Baid Feb 13, 2021

Homai Vyarawalla, who also operated under the pseudonym Dalda 13, is widely known as India’s first woman press photographer.

Inner and Outer Lives: The Untold Stories of Women by Homai Vyarawalla

Anisha Baid Feb 13, 2021

Curated by Sabeena Gadihoke and supported by the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, Inner and Outer Lives: The Many Worlds of Homai Vyarawalla was an exhibition of photographs by India’s pioneering female photojournalist held at the Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam in New Delhi.

Looking Beyond the Cinematic: Sabeena Gadihoke’s Selling Soap and Stardom

Ketaki Varma Feb 15, 2021

In 2010, Tasveer Ghar: A House of Pictures invited scholars from around the world to comment on entrepreneur and art connoisseur Priya Paul’s collection of popular Indian art, which was digitised in 2008.

सिनेमा और रेडियो: अंतर्माध्यम जुगलबंदी - II

Ravikant Feb 16, 2021

फ़िल्मी गीतों के प्रति आकाशवाणी के सख़्त ऐतिहासिक रवैये के उलट व्यावसायिक सिनेमा में आम तौर पर रेडियो को बेपनाह मोहब्बत के साथ पेश किया गया है, जो सिनेमा के लिए रेडियो की अहमियत का सुबूत है.

Chronicle or History? Looking at Anglo-Indian Photography

Ankan Kazi Feb 16, 2021

Indian literatures in English and the vernaculars contain a potent archive of thinking on photography.

Towards a Fugitive Photography: The Archives of Suresh Punjabi

Arushi Vats Feb 18, 2021

Founded by Suresh Punjabi in the late 1970s, Suhag Studio is located in the main street of Nagda Junction, a small town in Madhya Pradesh, India.

Gulf ⇄ South Asia: Unveiling Stories of Migration

Jennifer Chowdhry Biswas Feb 19, 2021

A colour photograph of a tailor from Gujarat working in Dubai, featured on the Instagram handle of Gulf ⇄ South Asia, is accompanied by an excerpt from an interview.

New Practices of Narration: Looking at Anglo-Indian Photographs

Ankan Kazi Feb 20, 2021

Several photographic projects grappled with and against these processes of fixing the image of the Anglo-Indian community.

Photographic Societies of Sri Lanka

Hitanshi Chopra Feb 23, 2021

The Amateur Photographic Association of Ceylon was established by Henricus Lorenz Wendt in 1906, almost fifty years after the medium was introduced to the island.

“Unsteady Luminosity”: The Photograph in Modern Malayali Novels

Ankan Kazi Feb 26, 2021

For the Anglo-Indian community, as we saw in our earlier posts, the “lost original” symbolised a mythic search for a culturally homogenous identity that was not available. If we turn to Malayalam novels of the early twentieth-century, we will find the vision of a “lost original” transferred onto a slightly different social value.

Imagined Archives: An Interview with Shan Bhattacharya

Senjuti Mukherjee Feb 26, 2021

Shan Bhattacharya is a self-taught photographer and artist based in Kolkata. In this conversation, we discuss his recent book, PORTAL: The Curious Account of Achintya Bose.

On Witness: An Interview with Sanjay Kak

Senjuti Mukherjee Feb 27, 2021

In this interview, Kak speaks to us about being the editor and publisher of the book Witness: Kashmir 1986-2016: Nine Photographers featuring two hundred images archiving the everyday repressive practices of the state.

The Ecology of Cinema: Debashree Mukherjee on Bombay Hustle

Ketaki Varma Mar 01, 2021

Mukherjee’s Bombay Hustle reveals itself as an ambitious history of these networks in Indian cinema. It offers a distinct portrait of the Bombay film industry during the silent to talkie transition of the 1920s–40s.

On a World-System Photography: Christopher Pinney's Seven Theses on Photography

Anisha Baid Mar 01, 2021

While thinking about photography continues to proliferate and explore new territories of public life and social history, one often struggles to find a unified “theory” of photography in contemporary times.

Both Poison and Cure: Christopher Pinney’s Seven Theses on Photography

Anisha Baid Mar 02, 2021

The field of photography remains a fertile ground for building frameworks to understand contemporary image cultures within the histories and socio-political contexts that produce them.

Film as Social History: Debashree Mukherjee on Bombay Hustle

Ketaki Varma Mar 02, 2021

In the second session of this two-part conversation about Bombay Hustle, Mukherjee discusses the role of women during the transition to the talkie, the novel ways in which she researched the book, and why she thinks fans are an essential part of the cine-ecology.

In a Bittersweet Land: William Gedney in India

Avrati Bhatnagar Mar 04, 2021

Early in his career as a United States of America-based documentary and street photographer, William Gedney arrived in India in November 1969 with the intent to travel to Kolkata.

Streets of Intimacy: William Gedney's Banaras Photographs

Avrati Bhatnagar Mar 04, 2021

Marked by a distinct affinity towards documenting existence at the margins of society, the oeuvre of North American photographer William Gedney offers vibrant and wide-ranging views.

Recalling AJ Patel: A Visionary in the World of Cinema and Photography

Sukanya Baskar Mar 06, 2021

Founded in 1932, Patel’s Central Camera Company started as a small store.

Reframing Generic Images: Old Indian Photos by Nihaal Faizal

Anisha Baid Mar 09, 2021

Nihaal Faizal works around the idea of the copy, reflecting upon media documents from popular and cultural memory.

What is a Cine-Ecology? Scenes from Debashree Mukherjee’s Bombay Hustle: Making Movies in a Colonial City

Ketaki Varma Mar 12, 2021

“Filmmaking depends on a dense network of human and nonhuman energies,” writes Debashree Mukherjee as she explains the photographs in her recent book Bombay Hustle: Making Movies in a Colonial City.

Who is a Cine-Worker? Scenes from Debashree Mukherjee’s Bombay Hustle: Making Movies in a Colonial City

Ketaki Varma Mar 13, 2021

Debashree Mukherjee’s book Bombay Hustle: Making Movies in a Colonial City excavates the histories of people and places that make up the cine-ecology of erstwhile colonial Bombay, particularly between the late 1920s and the early 1940s—a period characterised by the shift from silent to talkie films.

Conforming Vision: The Stereograph in Colonial India

Ankan Kazi Mar 15, 2021

In colonial South Asia, the stereoscopic photograph (or stereograph) was frequently produced and widely disseminated to encourage cultures of travelling.

Methodologies for New Histories: Diwas Raja Kc Discusses Dalit: A Quest for Dignity

Arushi Vats Mar 22, 2021

The end pages of Dalit: A Quest for Dignity (photo.circle and Nepal Picture Library, 2018) present scenes charged with resistance.

The Question of Form: Diwas Raja Kc Discusses Dalit: A Quest for Dignity

Arushi Vats Mar 23, 2021

In 2016, Nepal Picture Library curated the exhibition Dalit: A Quest for Dignity. Presented at the Patan Museum, it showcased over eighty photographs and records archiving the Dalit experience in Nepal.

Imperial Projects of Exploration: Louis Rousselet in India

Avrati Bhatnagar Mar 26, 2021

An artist and traveller, Louis Rousselet set sail from Marseilles, France and arrived at the bustling harbour of erstwhile colonial Bombay in the year 1864.

In Person: Amarnath Praful on the Curricula for Lens-Based Practices

Editorial Mar 25, 2021

In the third episode of In Person, Amarnath Praful discusses the curricula for lens-based practices at the National Institute of Design.

Imperatives of Commercial Photography: Reading the Works of Vivek Das

Ankan Kazi Mar 27, 2021

The work of commercial photographers can provide access to discourses that are conventionally disregarded in critical and academic theories.

On Absent-Minded Archives: Reading Photographs of Objects and Monuments

Ankan Kazi Mar 28, 2021

Based out of Kolkata, Vivek Das started taking photographs as early as the mid-1950s when he was a child, transitioning into the professional sphere as an advertising and commercial photographer in 1974.

Photography as a Fine Art: Experiments with the New Medium in British India

Avrati Bhatnagar Apr 04, 2021

While opinions in Europe were mostly divided on the consequent visual practices that emerged alongside the camera and whether they could be called “art” at all, there was no such dubious ascription to the status of photography in the colonial Indian milieu.

Where Was Time: The Public Clocks of Bombay

Arushi Vats Apr 11, 2021

Chirodeep Chaudhuri’s two-decade project documenting the public clocks of Bombay traces the residues of an era where the passage of time was marked by guiding objects on edifices of key buildings.

Archiving the Archive: Dayanita Singh’s File Room

Avrati Bhatnagar Apr 12, 2021

Described in its abstract as “…an elegy to paper in the age of the digitization of information and knowledge,” the overarching presence of the folders and documents in the composition of these photographs puts forth a special relationship between the photograph and the archive.

The Power of Moving Image: An Extract from Filmi Jagat

Editorial Apr 09, 2021

Filmi Jagat: A Scrapbook (Shared Universe of Early Hindi Cinema) was published by Niyogi Books in 2014 and presents the dynamic contours of graphic authorship by an elusive compiler, Mangaldas V. Lohana.

Communities of Image-Making: On Sayeeda Khanam and Photojournalism

Ankan Kazi Apr 26, 2021

A magazine like Begum, with which Sayeeda Khanam was associated for over fifty years, should be seen as a spiraling index into the world of female, predominantly Muslim literary giants in Bengali.

On Photographer-Soldiers: Looking at Images from Wartime Myanmar

Avrati Bhatnagar Apr 29, 2021

Photographic practice has been implicated in global wars since its inception. In fact, the earliest use of the camera on an international stage was carried out by Roger Fenton in 1855 to picture the consequences of the Crimean War in Europe.

Advertising the Indian Real: Review of R. Srivatsan’s Conditions of Visibility

Ankan Kazi May 06, 2021

Along with Christopher Pinney’s Camera Indica, R. Srivatsan’s book Conditions of Visibility (2000) was one of the early critical treatments of the cultures of pre-digital photography in India.

Of Resistance and Memory: Picturing the Mukti Bahini

Ankan Kazi May 10, 2021

The Mukti Bahini (Liberation Army) is a collection of military, paramilitary and civilian forces that fought in the struggle for the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971.

Transforming Landscapes: Painted Postcards of Colonial Calcutta

Ankan Kazi May 11, 2021

It was only after the arrival of Lord Wellesley that erstwhile colonial Calcutta became the subject of systematic town planning and civic improvement.

Fact and Fiction: A Review of Reverie and Reality

Ankan Kazi May 15, 2021

Reverie and Reality is a catalogue of an exhibition held at San Francisco, from September 2003 to March 2004.

The Propagandist and the Picturesque: Two Essays from Reverie and Reality

Ankan Kazi May 16, 2021

In this continuing discussion of Reverie and Reality, we focus on two essays by Sophie Gordon and Omar Khan which delve into the specific nature of a few photographic projects that are reflected in the Ehrenfeld collection.

Nation-Building and Photography: Marg Magazine’s 1960 Issue

Sukanya Baskar May 17, 2021

The 1960 issue on photography by Marg magazine was titled after the exhibition Images of India, an oft-cited source within the study of photographic histories and practices in the subcontinent.

From Pictorialism to Realism: On Marg's 1960 Issue

Sukanya Baskar May 18, 2021

In an issue dedicated to photography from December 1960, Marg magazine featured a stellar line-up of photographers who contributed to the issue.

People of Sri Lanka: Lionel Wendt's Portraits

Anisha Baid May 19, 2021

Lionel Wendt was an important figure in the development of modern and contemporary art in Sri Lanka (erstwhile Ceylon) who carved an influential legacy as a photographer, concert pianist and critic in the early and mid-twentieth-century.

An Experiential Reality: Surrealism and Lionel Wendt

Anisha Baid May 20, 2021

In this continuing presentation of images from the book Lionel Wendt’s Ceylon—one of the few available collections of this pioneering photographer’s work—we consider the influence of surrealism, constructivism and larger modernist concerns visible in his compositions.

A True Internationalist: An Encounter with Zia Qadri

Sukanya Baskar May 24, 2021

Born in Ahmedabad in 1916, Qadri was encouraged by his family at the age of fifteen to photograph the widely attended golden jubilee ceremony of the Maharaja of Baroda.

A Quest for Dignity: The Dalit Experience in Nepal

Gulmehar Dhillon Jun 01, 2021

Edited by Diwas Raja Kc and produced by NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati, the book (emerging from an exhibition in 2016) combines text with photographs to depict the brutality and structural injustice that the Dalit community has been subjected to over the course of Nepal’s history.

The Thrill of Acquisition: Pelin Esmer’s The Collector

Arushi Vats Jun 02, 2021

In the eleventh minute of The Collector (2002)—a documentary produced, directed, and shot by Pelin Esmer—we enter the promised land: an apartment in Istanbul packed to the rafters with objects of varying sizes and forms.

Visible Work and Invisible Bodies: P. Sainath and the People’s Archive of Rural India

Ankan Kazi Jun 07, 2021

Palagummi Sainath’s continuing engagement with a specialised language of photographic practice—where the artist effaces himself by submitting to the expression of an eloquent but invisible world of work—drives the project of People’s Archive of Rural India.

The Lady and the Lion: Reading the Political Posters of Pakistan

Ankan Kazi Jun 11, 2021

The democracy decade (1988-99) in Pakistan presented a period of rich, visual experimentation with the language of politics in the public sphere.

Archiving Oral Histories in Photographs: In Conversation with Diwas Raja Kc

Anisha Baid Jun 12, 2021

In this interview with Diwas Raja Kc, the head of Research and Archives at Nepal Picture Library, we delve into a discussion around the Nepal Picture Library’s archival methodology.

Contentious Territories of South Asia: In Conversation with Diwas Raja Kc

Anisha Baid Jun 15, 2021

The idea of “South Asia” is mobilised in multiple ways by cultural institutions in contemporary times. These often respond to a dominant Euro-American identity which has historically imposed its own concerns through and on powerful cultural institutions like museums and collections.

Informal Institutional Histories: Jyoti Bhatt’s Documentation of MSU Baroda

Samira Bose Jun 16, 2021

Artist and educator Jyoti Bhatt’s personal archive contains extensive documentation from his time as a teacher at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) of Baroda.

Camera as Imperial Technology: Looking at the Waterhouse Albums

Avrati Bhatnagar Jun 22, 2021

The early history of photography in nineteenth-century British India is known for the large-scale mobilisation of the photographic camera as a technology of sustaining imperial rule.

Sikander Begum and Her Royal Court: Looking at the Waterhouse Albums

Avrati Bhatnagar Jun 26, 2021

Not only did Sikander Begum get her official portrait taken, she also offered James Waterhouse an insight into the sartorial splendour of the royal court of Bhopal.

Archives in Transit: From Analogue to Digital Registers

Najrin Islam Jun 28, 2021

Through his project, this archive has no legs, Srinivas Kuruganti resurrected a personal archive of photographs taken in New York in the 1990s.

A Public Presence: Selected Photo-Documentation in Zubeida Agha’s Archive

Samira Bose Jun 30, 2021

In pioneering modern artist Zubeida Agha’s personal archive, we see photographs that portray Agha’s role and position in the modern art spaces of Pakistan and the international art scene.

Polycolonial Visions: The Photographs of Frederick Fiebig

Ankan Kazi Jun 29, 2021

Frederick Fiebig was an itinerant commercial lithographer and photographer who worked across a wide expanse of the colonial world in the nineteenth-century.

The Other Story: Exhibition Documentation in Rasheed Araeen’s Archive

Samira Bose Jul 27, 2021

Rasheed Araeen moved to London in the 1960s after his education in Karachi, and is considered a pioneer of minimalist sculpture in Britain.

Siddhartha Ghosh Interviews Sunil Janah: A Translation

Ankan Kazi Aug 04, 2021

The Bengali critic and historian of science and photography, Siddhartha Ghosh interviewed Sunil Janah on 23 March 1986. This is a translated excerpt from the interview.

From Nudity to Obscenity: An Anecdote by Sunil Janah

Ankan Kazi Aug 05, 2021

In this continuing translation of an interview between Sunil Janah and Siddhartha Ghosh, we take a closer look at the eminently frustrating nature of state-bureaucracy with regard to process of intimate artistic creation.

Looking, Searching: Visual References in Nilima Sheikh’s Archive

Samira Bose Aug 10, 2021

Nilima Sheikh practises predominantly in the medium of painting, with works on paper, large scrolls and installations, as well as theater set designs and illustrations for children’s books.

Explorations with the Human Body: Zia Qadri’s Tryst with Surrealism

Sukanya Baskar Aug 12, 2021

When the photographer Zia Qadri arrived in Los Angeles to join the Art Center School in 1940, there was another famed artist who arrived there. This was the Surrealist Man Ray.

An Index of Unfinished Histories: Mariam Ghani on Afghan Cinema

Najrin Islam Aug 13, 2021

Mariam Ghani's What We Left Unfinished interrogates the idealised Afghan national imaginary by resuscitating five unifinished films from Afghanistan's communist phase.

Mobilising Absence: Mariam Ghani on the Precarity of Archival Practices

Najrin Islam Aug 14, 2021

What We Left Unfinished emerged out of director Mariam Ghani’s engagement with the Afghan Film archives on a digitisation initiative meant to reinsert Afghan films into wider circulation.

The (Un)Making of Memories: Piotr Cieplak’s The Faces We Lost

Annalisa Mansukhani Aug 23, 2021

In The Faces We Lost—the 2017 documentary directed and produced by Piotr Cieplak—Paul Rukesha of the Genocide Archive speaks of the incurable affliction of living through the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide.

Remembering in Rwanda: The Sanctity of the Aftermath in The Faces We Lost

Annalisa Mansukhani Aug 24, 2021

In the documentary The Faces We Lost (2017), Piotr Cieplak highlights the family album as an object retrieved from obliteration and as simultaneously retrieving memories.

Between Image and Text: Reading Malavika Karlekar’s History of Early Photography

Ankan Kazi Aug 27, 2021

Malavika Karlekar is a historian and anthropologist, specialising in nineteenth-century women’s histories in India, often with a focus on Bengal.

Ways of Being (In a City): Review of Delhi: Looking Out/Looking In

Annalisa Mansukhani Aug 28, 2021

In the summer of 2021, Aperture magazine published a volume titled Delhi: Looking Out/Looking In, guest-edited by curator Rahaab Allana.

Archiving as Practice: Sneha Ragavan on the Evolving Role of Archives

Jyotsna Nambiar Aug 29, 2021

“Archives are no longer simple repositories of data, waiting for the right researcher to make meaning from the material,” says Sneha Ragavan, Senior Researcher and Projects Lead at Asia Art Archive in India.

The Living Statue: Photographing Masculinity in a Body-Building Manual

Sujaan Mukherjee Sep 02, 2021

In Bengal, the early decades of the twentieth-century witnessed a rise in different strands of physical cultures. While some were professionalising older traditions of wrestling, others were drawing on indigenous practices of stick-fighting and fencing.

“Memory’s Images”: A Catalogue of the Self by Mitul Kajaria

Annalisa Mansukhani Sep 06, 2021

Drawing on the photograph as an archival object of memory, Most happenings are beyond expression is a processual work by Mitul Kajaria that explores the conceptualisation and presentation of an archive of the self.

Modelling an Image: Photographing the Bengali Actress

Ankan Kazi Sep 07, 2021

In her essay “Capturing Stars: Bengali Actresses Through the Camera of Nemai Ghosh,” Sabeena Gadihoke presents a range of contexts that influenced the images of women taken by photographers like Ghosh and filmmakers like Satyajit Ray.

Metonymies and Methodologies: Lina Vincent and Akshay Mahajan Discuss the Goa Familia Project

Annalisa Mansukhani Sep 13, 2021

Spotlighting the family as a repository of memory and layered histories, the evolving Goa Familia project was developed under curator Rahaab Allana during the 2019 Serendipity Arts Festival.

Composing the Familial: Lina Vincent and Akshay Mahajan Discuss the Goa Familia Project

Annalisa Mansukhani Sep 14, 2021

In their interactions with families in Goa, Lina Vincent and Akshay Mahajan have found and foregrounded the linkages between the micro-genealogies of inheritances— such as family names—and larger notions of community, class and religion.

Encountering Violence: An Array of Loose Documents in 1528

Sukanya Deb Sep 08, 2021

In October 2016, photographer Rohit Saha journeyed to Imphal, Manipur, embarking on a project that would result in the photobook 1528.

Performing the Nuclear Sublime: Himali Singh Soin’s static range

Najrin Islam Sep 09, 2021

Himali Singh Soin’s performative work, static range, is situated at the intersection of archives, science, the speculative and the anecdotal.

Narrating the Tibetan Resistance: The Lhamo Tsering Archive

Mila Samdub Sep 21, 2021

Between 1960 and 1974, a Tibetan guerrilla army operated out of a base in the high-altitude region of Mustang in northern Nepal.

Digital Flânerie: The Garga Archives in the Contemporary

Najrin Islam Oct 13, 2021

Initially conceived as a book, the Garga Archives emerged from sustained interaction between Anuj Malhotra of the Lightcube film collective and Donabelle Garga—wife of late filmmaker and historian Bhagwan Das Garga.

The Zamindars of Bengal: Looking at Santanu Dey's Lost Legacy

Gulmehar Dhillon Oct 12, 2021

A visual artist and independent photographer based in Kolkata, Santanu Dey’s work explores mythology, culture and socio-political issues, often locating itself at the intersection of art and documentary.

Acts of Witnessing: Amar Kanwar’s The Torn First Pages

Mallika Visvanathan Oct 15, 2021

Amar Kanwar’s The Torn First Pages provides interesting parallels to the present moment as Myanmar once again finds itself under military dictatorship.

Print Advertising in Colonial Bengal: A Visual Lexicon of Commodity Cultures

Najrin Islam Oct 18, 2021

In this curated collection of images from The City in the Archive: Calcutta’s Visual Histories, the trajectory of print advertisements from the early to late twentieth-century is explored in the language of archival documentation.

Narrating the Body in/as Data: WOUNDING, an Episode by Amitesh Grover

Annalisa Mansukhani Oct 19, 2021

In 2018, MASH India and the FICA instituted the MASH FICA Award: Supporting New Media Art Practice to promote and encourage critical perspectives on new media art, working to emphasise the expansiveness of the term.

The Painted in the Performed: Photo-Documentation of Nilima Sheikh’s Theatre Collaborations

Samira Bose Oct 23, 2021

Within the archive of artist Nilima Sheikh, there is a focus on the collaborative nature of her feminist practice, which included her work in theatre design between 1989 and 2001.

Revolution in a Family Album: Firouzeh Khosrovani’s Radiograph of a Family

Samira Bose Nov 11, 2021

Radiograph of a Family is the filmmaker’s personal foray into the shared lives and experiences of her parents reconstructed through fragments of family photographs and videos from public archives.

What Do We Mourn? : Shoebox and the Death of the Single-Screen Theatre

Sujaan Mukherjee Nov 14, 2021

Elegies for the single-screen theatre have been pouring in from different corners of India, especially over the last several months.

Performing the Archive: A Talk by Surajit Sarkar

Ankan Kazi Nov 22, 2021

The Asia Art Archive’s Inter-Archives Conversations series, in collaboration with Nepal Picture Library and Mobile Library: Nepal, hosted a session titled Narrativising the Archive on 7 October with Surajit Sarkar.

Concerning Photography: In Conversation with Brett Rogers and Sarah Turner

Arushi Vats Nov 25, 2021

In this episode of ASAP Cast, Arushi Vats speaks to Brett Rogers and Sarah Turner as they discuss how they conceptualised the structure of the conference titled Concerning Photography.

Of Life and Labour: Sohrab Hura's Pati

Gulmehar Dhillon Nov 30, 2021

Sohrab Hura’s eleven-minute-long black-and-white documentary film depicts the realities of a small village in the Central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Exhibitions as a Series of Statements: An Interview with David Bate

Sukanya Baskar Dec 01, 2021

In this interview with David Bate, we discuss the importance of the exhibition in fostering photographic interest, evolutions in its conception and the resultant changes in photographic pedagogy.

The Scrapbook as Archive: Wahab Jaffer’s Documentation of Ahmed Parvez

Samira Bose Dec 02, 2021

Wahab Jaffer, a Karachi-based artist was a student of the prominent painter Ahmed Parvez in the 1970s, after which they developed a close friendship, and Jaffer a life-long fascination for Parvez’s work.

Visibilities, Mobilities, Positionings: Photography Across Spaces of Exhibition

Annalisa Mansukhani Dec 13, 2021

The “Exhibitions and Touring” panel as part of the last day of the conference Concerning Photography brought together curators, writers and art historians who presented papers on key spaces of exhibitionary practice.

Impulses in Institutional Archives: A Panel Discussion on Archival Futures

Samira Bose Dec 14, 2021

Can the structure of archives contain, represent and render anti-institutional impulses and counter-cultural histories?

Fictive Historiographies: In Conversation with Parvathi and Nayantara Nayar

Mallika Visvanathan Jan 25, 2022

The artist Parvathi Nayar and researcher and performer Nayantara Nayar discusses the work “Chicken Run,” which excavates a history of the Korean War through its connection to India.

Perishable Empires: Re-Historicising the World in Mohini Chandra’s Paradise Lost

Ankan Kazi Feb 01, 2022

Mohini Chandra’s work Paradise Lost—featuring texts, images and performance videos—is currently on display as part of the ongoing edition of the Chennai Photo Biennale.

Teaching a New Art: Transitioning to the National College of Arts, Lahore

Ankan Kazi Mar 01, 2022

Following the Partition of British India and the concomitant birth of a new, bifurcated nation-state in 1947, Pakistan was warming up to the demand for a new agenda in the arts.

Documenting Dalit Resistance: The Trajectory of Dalit Camera

Ankan Kazi Mar 09, 2022

Over the last decade, Dalit Camera has become a video-making institution and community media practice that foregrounds the problem of caste as it intersects with various other social barriers in India.

The Anglo-Indian Archives: Methodologies for Creating Future History

Veeranganakumari Solanki Mar 28, 2022

The Anglo-Indian Archives was founded by photographers Dileep Prakash, Adira Thekkuveettil and Sheik Mohamed Ishaq in 2018.

Interrupting the Archive: Renluka Maharaj on Indentureship and Historical Revisions

Najrin Islam Jul 26, 2022

Renluka Maharaj talks about using her work to bypass mainstream historiography and counter the imperialist rhetoric of indenture through subversive strategies of excess.

Reclaiming the “Coolie Belle”: On Renluka Maharaj’s Pelting Mangoes

Najrin Islam Jul 28, 2022

On her discovery of French photographer Felix Morin’s portraiture work on the Indo-Caribbean “Coolie Belles”, Maharaj observed signs of staging that were apparent in the repeated use of clothing and jewellery across the postcards, revealing thus several asymmetries of power.

Photograph as a Commodity: Professional Photography in Twentieth-Century Calcutta

Jigisha Bhattacharya Aug 30, 2022

As the modern technology of photography entered the social and cultural worlds of what we now know as India, the city of Calcutta fast became one of the firsts to accommodate the camera into its public life.

At Home in the World: The Archive of Navina Sundaram

Shivani Kasumra Apr 10, 2023

The Fifth Wall archive was launched amidst spirited discussions around decolonisation, public access and archival imaginaries.

A Living Archive: The Fifth Wall and Feminist Archiving Practices

Madhubanti De Apr 12, 2023

Conceptualised by Merle Kröger and Mareike Bernien, along with Navina Sundaram, within the framework of Archive außer sich (Archives Beside Themselves), The Fifth Wall proposes itself as a model for future archival practice.

Imaging South Asia: The Turn of a Kaleidoscope

Mallika Visvanathan Apr 24, 2023

With the backdrop of Hangama Amiri’s “Sahar, Nail Salon #1” setting the scene, the symposium Imaging South Asia at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), Saket, brought together a range of artists, curators and critics to ruminate on the notion of South Asia.

Networks in Circulation: Emily Jacir's Where We Come From

Upasana Das Jul 10, 2026

In the first of a two-part essay, Upasana Das reflects on Emily Jacir’s Where We Come From (2001–03), examining how the lives of Palestinians in exile and those denied the freedom of movement become a way of tracing the many fractured geographies of occupation.

Emily Jacir's Where We Come From: After Twenty Five Years

Upasana Das Jul 11, 2026

In the second part of her essay, Upasana Das returns to Emily Jacir’s Where We Come From (2001–03), exploring how walking, image-making and circulation become practices of counter-surveillance and reclamation amid enforced immobility.

Tender Guerrillas: Self-filming in Queer Cinema

Pramodha Weerasekera Jul 24, 2026

Writing on Najrin Islam's curated film programme Tender Guerrillas: Self-Filming and Queer Becomings, Pramodha Weerasekera follows the project's approach to self-documentation as a radical mode of queer image-making in South Asia that transforms intimacy, vulnerability and desire into forms of resistance.

The Time It Takes to Be Seen: Pushpa Rawat’s Mod

Tanay Shrotriy Sep 03, 2026

Tanay Shrotriy writes on Pushpa Rawat’s Mod (The Turn, 2016), tracing how the filmmaker’s recurring encounters with a group of young men in Ghaziabad unearth familiar narratives of delinquency, exposing the caste and class-bound conditions shaping their aspirations, expectations of masculinity and precarious futures.

Indian Parallel Cinema and the Global South: In Conversation with Omar Ahmed

Ankan Kazi Sep 16, 2026

In the first part of this conversation, Ankan Kazi speaks with film curator and scholar Omar Ahmed about his book, The Revolution of Indian Parallel Cinema in the Global South (1968–1995): From Feminism to Iconoclasm (2025), tracing its political and aesthetic formations across changing structures of production.

Parallel Visions: Omar Ahmed on the Politics of Film Curation

Ankan Kazi Sep 17, 2026

In the second part of this conversation, Ankan Kazi speaks with film curator and scholar Omar Ahmed about the connections of Indian Parallel Cinema with Third Cinema and African decolonising cinema. Ahmed reflects on the political possibilities of looking beyond established canons and discusses the challenges of curating and programming Indian independent cinema abroad—from rights and access to the persistent expectations that shape how Indian cinema is encountered by Western audiences.

Archives of Excess: Cinephilia and Hindi Film Posters

Dev Saraswat Sep 05, 2026

In his review of the exhibition Duniya Parchhaiyon Ki: Elusive Frames, Resonant Echoes, Dev Saraswat considers how Hindi film posters, song booklets and other ephemera reshape how cinema is archived and remembered. Moving through the exhibition’s unofficial visual cultures, he outlines an “archive of memory traces”sustained through copying, recycling and cinema’s persistent afterlife.

The Postal Portfolios: A Little History of Photography in Early Twentieth-Century India

Sreerupa Bhattacharya Sep 19, 2026

Tracing the postal photography circles of 1940s India, Sreerupa Bhattacharya explores how circulating portfolios created new forms of exchange, critique and pedagogy among amateur photographers. Through the work of Debalina Mazumder and Manobina Roy, she considers how these networks helped shape the technical vocabulary through which photography was judged, debated and interpreted.

Multisensorial Ephemera: Bombay Cinema’s Song Booklets

Vansh Sharma Sep 09, 2026

Vansh Sharma considers the song booklet as a multisensory archive of Bombay cinema, tracing how film ephemera extended the cinematic experience beyond the theatre. Drawing on the Rahaab Allana Collection, this album looks at the material, visual and multilingual aspects of the booklets as well as their role in preserving fragments of films that may no longer survive.

On Bimal Roy: In Conversation with Aparajita Roy Sinha, Joy Bimal Roy and Rinki Roy Bhattacharya

Shamya Dasgupta Sep 11, 2026

In this edited conversation, Shamya Dasgupta speaks with Bimal Roy’s children Aparajita Roy Sinha, Joy Bimal Roy and Rinki Roy Bhattacharya about the filmmaker’s life, work and enduring legacy. Through memories of his films and the creative communities around them, they consider Roy’s approach to filmmaking and the relationships that shaped his practice.