Upon returning to his hometown after pursuing several photography projects, Jaisingh Nageswaran, on a languid day during the lockdown, reflected on the social issues that have plagued four generations of his community, and found himself analogous with the fish swimming in a bowl at his house in Vadipatti village in Madurai district. From the depths of this observation emerged the sublime and provocative photo essay, I Feel Like a Fish, which reflects on identity, complex social systems, and recollections.
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From the series I Feel like a Fish | Photo Credit: Jaisingh Nageswaran
“I felt like a fish in a fishbowl the day I realised that society had drawn barriers around me and my community,” says the 45-year-old homegrown photographer, whose deeply personal works have garnered accolades internationally.
Last year, Jaisingh bagged the Grand Prix at the Kyotographie International Photo Festival in Kyoto, Japan, for his photo essay The Lodge, a compelling but subtle exploration of what goes on behind the scenes of the annual Koothandavar festival in Koovagam, Villupuram, at which transgender persons open up to a world hostile to them.
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Fast forward to April 2024, Jaisingh returns to Kyoto yet again, this time to exhibit the experimental, more personal, and deeply poignant I feel Like A Fish in the 11th edition of the Kyotographie International Photo Festival. The annual photography festival is happening between April 13 and May 12 and Jaisingh is the first Indian to be featured in the festival.
“The more I survey the outside world with my camera, the more I get closer to myself,” says the 45-year-old native of Madurai. “Be it I Feel Like A Fish, The Lodge or The Land That Is No More, all my works have been an exploration of the landscapes within me. Each of the photographs tells a story not different from my own,” he says.
The series is an insider’s account of the struggles and joys, and high and lows of a Dalit family in rural Madurai | Photo Credit: Jaisingh Nageswaran
“I Feel Like A Fish is my most personal work. It’s an insider’s account of the struggles and joys, and high and lows of a Dalit family in rural Madurai,” says Jaisingh. It was featured at the 13th African Biennale of Photography, and the Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac Photography Award in France as well.
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The Family Tree
Almost all the photographs in the lyrical essay, one way or the other, revolve around the family of Jaisingh and its social struggle through generations.
The Ponnuthai Amma Gandhiji Primary School in Vadipatti, founded by Ponnuthai, Jaisingh’s grandmother, in 1953, stands tall as a symbol of resilience | Photo Credit: Jaisingh Nageswaran
For instance, we see in the opening photograph a small group of school children. Beneath the faint smiles buried is the history of institutionalised discrimination and violence that has plagued the school the children belong to for over six decades.
The Ponnuthai Amma Gandhiji Primary School in Vadipatti, founded by Ponnuthai, Jaisingh’s grandmother, in 1953, stands tall as a symbol of resilience. What started off as a makeshift establishment with only two teachers made strides in terms of the quality of service and enrolment ratio, and at a certain period even became the talk of the town. The institution rose above the many challenges and targeted attacks hurled at it through decades and, today, preserves the legacy of Ponnuthai and her drawn-out struggle for social justice.
‘My work itself is my tool’, says the photographer | Photo Credit: Jaisingh Nageswaran
Stating that he does not focus on specific cameras or brands, Jaisingh says: “My work itself is my tool, and the closer I get to my photographs – be it the barren landscapes of my hometown or even the afternoon slumber of a goat at the backyard of my house – the more I reveal an aspect or two of myself.”