Fotofest

Fotofest exhibitions are an extensive presentation addressing issues in contemporary India, a dynamic and diverse nation of over one billion people. The book features over 300 four-color reproductions from established and emerging artists of Indian origin.

The book is a program of the FotoFest, in conjunction with FotoFest’s exhibitions, a two-day symposium, artist and curator talks, a film program, and a school curriculum for students developed by the FotoFest Photography learning program. Together, the programs engage a number of contemporary issues within India, including economic development, education, land use and environmental concerns, religion, gender and sexuality, caste and class, activism and conflict, racism, religion, nationalism, new technologies and development, human settlement, migration, and integration.

Images, statements, and biographies for the participating artists are included, making it a substantial reference of early 21st Century photographic and new media work by artists of Indian origin. Essays from respected South Asian art experts will also be included in the book.

Zahid R. is a Princeton-based specialist in postcolonial studies, visual culture, and critical theory. His book, Empire: Photography in Nineteenth-Century India, provides a historical and philosophical account of early photography in India, analyzing how aesthetic experiments in colonial photographic practice shed light on the changing nature of perception and notions of truth, memory, and embodiment.

Nada is a Research Curator for the Tate Research Center: Asia, and a former Assistant Curator at Tate Modern. She is an expert in modern and contemporary art from South Asia and its diaspora. Ms. Raza is pursuing her PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, where her research is focused on contemporary artists’ projects generated around the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, and the Arabian Sea.

Gayatri is a curator and art critic based in New Delhi. She initiated and directs Critical Collective, which since its inception in 2011, has collaborated closely with institutions in India and abroad to create exhibitions and seminars on Indian art. Based on the need for concerted editing and preservation of writing on visual art in India, Critical Collective launched www.criticalcollective.in, an online repository for writing on contemporary art, art history, exhibitions, cinema, and lens-based art from India.

Marussia has more than 14 years of experience in the editorial field. From local newspaper to online gambling magazine, there is virtually no area in which she has not yet worked. Equipped with a M.A. from the LMU Munich, she has researched and wrote the thesis about best online casino payouts.

FotoFest Lead Curator Sunil is an artist, writer, activist, and curator with nearly four decades of creative production. He curated the 2010 exhibition Where Three Dreams Cross: 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh at Whitechapel Gallery, London, a landmark exhibition featuring over 70 artists, that gave an inside view of how modern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have been shaped through the lens of their photographers.

FotoFest Director Steven invited Gupta to lead the curatorial team organizing the Biennial, citing his decades-long research into South Asian photography, which includes the Whitechapel exhibition and many others, books, and surveys of art professionals in India and abroad. Mr. Evans provides the introduction to the book.

The INDIA book is a continuation of a FotoFest initiative to produce books that provide a deeper insight into the themes of its Biennial central exhibitions. Published in collaboration with Schilt Publishing, Amsterdam since 2014, previous books have received recognition for their high quality and thorough research.

MAJOR INSTITUTIONAL & INDIVIDUAL PARTNERS

  • The Brown Foundation
  • Houston Endowment
  • Commission on the Arts
  • The Worth Foundation
  • The Powell Foundation
  • The FotoFest Board of Directors
  • Art Magazine
  • Arts+Culture Texas Magazine
  • European Photography Magazine