RE IMAGING PEOPLE OF INDIA

Re imaging People of India was a project I was commissioned in 2013 as one of the 4 photographers by India Photo Archive Foundation to re interpret India's first ever published book "People of India" then conceived and commissioned by Lord Canning, the first governor general of India during the British rule in India in 1850. The 10 portraits are my representation of the same. A brief detail of the project is as follows: The People of India was an 8-volume publication compiled by John Forbes Watson and John William Kaye between 1868 and 1875. Originally conceived by Lord and Lady Canning, it was an early experiment with photography as a documentary medium. The project Re-imaging The People of India 2013 aims at providing a visual comparative interpretation of an enormously multicultural nation from widely contrasting standpoints in terms of space and time; the ones who ruled and their observation and now post-independence, our own self-reflection. Re-imaging The People of India (1850-2013), a photography exhibition under the aegis of Neel Dongre Awards/Grants for Excellence in Photography by India Photo Archive Foundation. The Foundation presents a collaborative photographic project by four eminent contemporary photo practitioners representing different genres of photography; Dinesh Khanna, Dileep Prakash, Mahesh Bhat and Sandeep Biswas and curated by Aditya Arya, a leading practitioner, a photo historian and archivist. This exhibition showcases rare albumin prints from 1850s (from the Aditya Arya Archive) and the contemporary work on similar communities and professions.