One…two…three…
four … five…
six. Seven? Oh yes! The one which is to be launched next year in Jaipur. Is that all? Nope! There is yet another one. Photosphere, just announced by India Habitat Centre in New Delhi. So, it’s eight. Finally!
Well, this is the burgeoning list of photography festivals in India, a platform celebrating the medium, which for ages has been debated as an art form. And as we go to press, the third edition of Nazar Foundation’s biennial Delhi Photo Festival is already underway at Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA). Panel discussions — on photography in the 21 Century — book launches (Raghu Rai’s bi-monthly art magazine Creative Image andKanu’s Gandhi’s Nazar Photography Monographs 03 ) photo walks and exhibition launches mark the first day of the festival. Born to celebrated lensmen Prashant Panjiar and Dinesh Khanna in 2011, it has gone on to become the oldest of the lot with a definite profile and approach. The youngest (from what we know as of now) would be India Habitat Photosphere — initiated by India Habitat Centre and curated by Alka Pande, and Travel Photo Jaipur, Pink City’s open-air photography festival to be held in Delhi and Jaipur respectively in 2016.
From Delhi to Goa
Between the oldest and the youngest exist several more photo festivals proliferating in other cities and towns . And for a medium as democratic as photography, the sweeping endorsement seems logical. While Mumbai had its first ever Focus Photography Festival in 2013, Pondicherry hosted Pondy Photo in 2014. And Goa, our go-to vacation spot, didn’t have one but two photography festivals — Goa International Photo Festival (in February) and Goa Photo (Feb-end till March 7) this year. Probably the grandest of them came from Telangana, which had Indian Photography Festival in Hyderabad earlier this month. Captured for so long, now the tranquil hills of Shillong have also got captivated by the medium and are readying to host Shillong International Photo Festival next month.
Rooting for more
And as this happens, photographic community is only rejoiced and Pa. Madhavan is one of them. “When across the world, festivals are dying; here suddenly we have a surge of photography festivals which is a good thing. In fact, every state should have its photography festival like you have sports events at different levels. It engages the community, the city. It has social relevance,” says Madhavan. The Ooty-based photographer known for his work with analogue and pre-analogue image making processes has mounted a festival around the Cooum river, the historic river that has reduced to a drain today in Chennai.
Individualistic profiles
Kasha Vande of Pondy Photo agrees with Madhavan’s remark about the need for more festivals. They can happily co-exist and even share. The expression is such that it resonates with anyone and everyone on the streets. “That’s why we took it to the public by using abandoned spaces, compound walls. In the first edition of Pondy Photo, six shows were held in an old distillery on Beach Road. The space hadn’t been used for 20 years,” says Kasha whose brainchild Pondy Photo centres around a strong theme and public connect. In its second occurrence in 2016, every activity — from documentaries to performances to outreach to exhibitions — will attempt to spread awareness about different facets of water in the Indian subcontinent.
Goa Photo also claims to have strong engagement with its environs and locals. Lola Mac Dougall-Padgaonkar, Goa Photo Director and Travel Photo Jaipur Artistic Director says that 19 exhibitions by international and Indian photographers printed in large formats were displayed on building facades or hung from balconies. “We strive to ensure that innovative work by Indian photographers is an integral component of the exhibitions. At Goa Photo, we organised two Magnum Photos workshopsthat are open to all, and the exposure will certainly benefit not just aspiring photographers but also the general public…” says Lola. The curator of the first edition was Frank Kalero, the Artistic Director of Photo Quai, a biennial of photography that takes place in Paris.
Her new assignment — Travel Photo Jaipur — shares the democratic spirit of Goa. Outdoor displays in public spaces like heritage sites would be the highlight. “We are planning five exhibitions in Hawa Mahal complex… As one of the most visited and celebrated Indian cities, the residents of Jaipur are used to being photographed. With, Travel Photo Jaipur the gaze is now reversed, and it is their turn to observe the photographic wonders of the world,” Lola explains.
To escape from getting lost in this crowd of festivals, one would require strong format and solid content. “And as long as we can inspire each other to showcase better work and not become copycats, we all can co-exist because one Delhi Photo Festival isn’t enough for the whole country. We have become popular because of our format and content. One self-assigned mandate is to showcase the best of contemporary photography to the Indian audience. We are not saying it’s definite but representative of contemporary photography,” says Dinesh Khanna, who founded Delhi Photo Festival with Panjiar.
Shillong International Photo Festival offering a mix of established names — Raghu Rai, Prashant Panjiar, Sumit Dayal — to emerging names of the region like Adish Baruah, Rashingam Ngoruh and Jeremy Hauhnar, appears to have pedagogy on its radar. Initiated by the Mass Media department of St. Anthony’s College, Shillong, it’s primary objective is to give exposure to its students. “Yes, students are the priority because we really want them to make the best use of opportunity. We have one international photographer Manuel Vason who would conduct an intensive workshop. But this also happens to be the first such event of photography on this scale in the region so we want to involve other sections of the community,” says Rosemary Ishorary, publicity in-charge of the festival. With the theme of light, it wishes to explore the genre of performance photography.
It is with this view of making space for photography in the region that has long standing relationship with the medium that Hyderabad hosted Indian Photography Festival. Organised by Light Craft Foundation in partnership with Telangana Tourism, the platform showcased the works of 90 photographers from India and 45 from Telangana through 63 exhibitions held at State Art Gallery in Madhapur and other 16 locations in the city. “We live in these times of visual clutter. We need to see in order to differentiate the good from the bad. Local photographers would only get inspired by seeing such a vast variety of works. We had artist talks which had Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Barbara Davidson in one of the panels. People here had not experienced something like this. It was in galleries, parks, forts,” says Aquin Mathews, Festival Director.
More foreign photographers than their Indian counterparts
But photo-historian Aditya Arya and Madhavan feel that there is far too much stress on the international content. The ongoing Delhi Photo Festival, has about 37 exhibitions by foreign photographers and just five shows by Indian photographers. If Aditya enquires about the emergence of Indian vision through these festivals, Madhavan directly points out the inadequate representation of Indian photographers. “The usual excuse is that they didn’t get enough good work from Indian photographers. When I curated ‘Focus’ in Bombay, this year, I deliberately tried to achieve 50-50 balance. The idea is to give more exposure to Indian photographers,” says Madhavan. At Focus, he focused on different aspects of performative photography and image creation.
Network in the offing
Criticism aside, there is so much that these festivals can do for photography by fostering greater exchange. Kasha Vande of Pondy Photo (which received much support from Nazar Foundation) says, she is working on a proposal to create a network of all the festivals so that they can borrow shows from each other and not overlap neither in terms of content and nor in dates.
