: PondyPHOTO 2016, a public art initiative to be held in Puducherry’s Old Port, is set to go for crowd-funding this year. A unique crowd-funding campaign ongenerosity.comwas launched on June 1 where individuals can sign up to partner with this landmark event.
The biennial festival which aims to build awareness on social and environmental issues through photography in public spaces, is back with its second edition in August-September 2016.
With climate change, economic development and increasing human demands visibly altering water bodies, the PondyPHOTO 2016 will focus on the theme of ‘Water’. “This year’s initiative titled ‘Water’, is foregrounded in the various water-related disasters witnessed in the past year. While individuals, organizations and government are making efforts to educate the public about the issues that surround water and its consumption, much more needs to be done,” says Kasha Vande, director of the festival.
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The festival will kick off on August 27. The organisers will update on a daily basis in all social media channels about the event and on the websitepondyphoto.com.It will showcase photographs by over 30 award-winning international photographers, documentary and feature film screenings, performances, forums and short workshops.
Local landmark
The government has permitted the organisers to utilise the generally off-limits Old Port recognising its spatial and emotional appeal to the people of Puducherry. By visually transforming a centrally located space with limited accessibility, PondyPHOTO 2016 once again makes it possible for the public to experience and explore a once-frequented local landmark.
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Kasha Vande added that PondyPHOTO 2016 seeks to bring photographers and artists together to share the Indian sub-continent’s water stories, both of the past and of the present, and asking change makers to share methods of conserving this extraordinarily important resource. The festival aims to initiate community involvement through an extensive youth outreach programme. Civic forums will also work on building awareness and initiating positive behaviour change at the grass-root level.
Photojournalist Pablo Bartholomew, environmentalist-artist Ravi Agarwal, former photo director, Telegraph magazine, Cheryl Newman, Japan-based photographer and communicator James Whitlow Delano will participate.
An exhibition, ‘the kitchen sink’ curated by Cheryl Newman will be a highlight of the festival. Organisations including renowned environmental agency, Toxics Link, French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP), Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art and Alliance Francaise, Sri Aurobindo Ashram are working with the advisory committee to make PondyPHOTO an international standard event with its own unique identity on scale with the Delhi Photo Festival and other international photography platforms. The advisory board constitutes Kasha Vande, and photographers Ravi Agarwal, Pablo Bartholomew, Nicolas Chorier, Yannick Cormier, and Waswo X. Waswo.
Crowd-funding campaign launched; renowned photographers to
take part