Thursday, October 10, 2013

Wanted: Critical Writing on Photography



WANTED: CRITICAL WRITING ON PHOTOGRAPHY – MUMBAI – OCT 13

October 11 2013, Mumbai

Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan
Niyatee Shinde
Niyatee Shinde is an Independent curator, photo-historian and writer on art and photography. In 1978 she graduated with a BA from University of Mumbai and later in 1986 did a Diploma in Copy-writing at Advertising Agencies Association of India. In 2003 she was Research Fellow, NMAH, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; research subject: Interdisciplinary access to photographic collections within the Smithsonian units and museums. From 1995 to 2006 she was Director & Curator, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Mumbai where she curated many exhibitions with Indian and International artists, conceptualized and conducted varied workshops on Indian folk and traditional crafts by Master craftspeople. She was one of the founder-editors of the Times Journal of Photography, TOI, Mumbai and was invited as nominator for the Leopold Godowsky Jr. Photography Awards 1997 and the Hasselblad Photographer Award for 2000 and 2006. She was also invited to judge several national photography exhibitions. In 1993 she conceptualized, researched and compiled ` The Legacy of Raja Deen Dayal’, a major exhibition of photographs by Raja Deen Dayal, for Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi. Also compiled and contributed text to the dossier on Raja Deen Dayal, presented by Air India on their 60th anniversary. As writer on art and photography critic and reviewer she contributed to the Times of India and later wrote several critical features on art and photography for the Indian Express. She continues to contribute essays and reviews on photography for national and International publications. Amongst many recognitions and honours she was awarded the Paul Getty grant in 2004 and the 1994 Goethe-Institut Scholarship for photography research.
She will speak about her experience in writing on photography for Times Journal of Photography and her writing on various photography curatorial projects.
Abhijeet Tahmane
Abhijeet Tamhane is an art critic based in Mumbai who has been writing critical weekly art reviews for the last decade or so. Apart from his regular weekly review essays, he has been writting smaller reviews and general interest articles on art, on a weekly basis for the last four years. Abhijeet has aslo written several catalogues in English, interviewed prominent artists and delivered several lectures on art. At present, he is working with Lok Satta.
He will speak about his experience in writing on art, both in English and Marathi.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

World Press debate and other stories


Thanks to Twitter on which I can track many things at the same time, I was clued into the results of the World Press Photo, which each year brings together an amazing body of work on its platforms, and is judged by some of the world's greatest photojournalists. Photo-shopping has always been a deeply debated issue, and this year's WPP winning image of Paul Hansen brought alive the debate again. It is also a difficult issue to deal with. On my computer, the image from the WPP winner's gallery seemed quite darker, but on my photographer colleague's computer the image appeared much brighter. Photoshelter blog has posted both the images. What do you think? I also like the original brighter image and don't see the need to photoshop it further. It has enough and soft light, is superbly composed, and captures the entire tragedy perfectly. I would really like to know what Paul Hansen has to say about this?

                                             Copyright: Paul Hansen/ World Press Photo


Another debate is also on about Paolo Pellegrin's images of a former Marine sniper which won him the Freelance Photographer of the Year award at the equally prestigious POYi. NYT photography blog put the controversy in perspective.

                                           

I discovered Guernica magazine quite late, and everytime that I got to their website, it has some really thought provoking reading material. Sinnamon Love deals with the question if while doing pornography, she was being a feminist.

I also found an article by Prashant Reddy in Open magazine on the extent of foreign funding in Indian NGOs, and it is quite mind-boggling. Do read.

The British Film Institute is doing a retrospective of documentary film-maker Anand Patwardhan's brilliant body of work. An interview with ever eloquent Anand Patwardhan

                                                A poster of Anand Patwardhan's controversial Raam Ke Naam


Happy reading!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Photo essay on India's women soldiers


I came across Poulomi Basu's very interesting photo story on India's women soldiers in Tehelka magazine. In 2009, India's Border Security Force began training women soldiers to be deployed on its border with Pakistan. Poulomi captured their life at the training camp. The series of photographs were part of Tehelka's latest issue on One Billion Rising. The pictures are worth taking a look at Poulomi's website.

NYT's photo blog featured Poulomi's work last year.

Do read.