1. What is your earliest memory of how or what attracted you to photography?
During my childhood I was very curious about a collection of family photographs that we had at home. They were old and precious, and they were kept in the safe most of the time. It was not a proper album; it was more like a box. Whenever my mother took out those pictures, I would stare at them for hours. I would think, “When will photography happen to me? When will I have that many pictures of myself?” One of the photographs I still vividly remember was of my aunt wearing a Rajasthani traditional dress, which was made to show to her prospective groom. About it my mother used to say to me, “When you become an adult, we will take your picture to find a beautiful bride for you.”
2. When and why did you decide to take up photography?
For years, I was using photography to document the HIV/AIDS project that I was involved with, but at that time, I did not consider myself a photographer. In 2009, I found myself surrounded by photographers, many of whom were working in the arts and in academia. They would tell me that I have many stories to tell, that I should take up photography seriously. Only then did I realize that I could make this a serious career. Those conversations around me were vital towards my making this decision.
3. Did you study photography formally in a college or university? What was your experience? If not, how did you inform yourself about the medium – the techniques, the language and the aesthetics of it?
Yes, I earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Photography, from the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK, and am currently doing a practice-based Ph.D. at the Royal College of Art, London.
Although this is my second time around, I have a long gap in between my education. I studied commerce as an undergraduate in the ’90s and worked as an auditor, which I did not enjoy much. It was also the time when I was learning about the AIDS crisis and how it was affecting the lives of millions. This eventually led me to work with HIV/AIDS in multiple capacities – as an educator, manager, researcher, and mentor. It sounds chaotic, but this offered an ethical ground for my current research to take place, and I let my art practice emerge from there.
4. In your opinion, is it important to have formal training in photography? Why?
Yes, I think formal training in photography is important. The classroom and my peers were essential for me to develop a relevant educational curriculum for myself in the field of photography, understanding its history, and its place in fine art discourse and society in general. Creating platforms for knowledge production helps us to understand critically what photography can offer us today.
5. If you were to design a photo program for young Indian photographers, what would it look like?
I think I would like to see two kinds of postgraduate degree programs – one in photography as documentary, and another as fine art. An undergraduate program could combine elements of both as well as some technical training. Both kinds would benefit from a combination of lectures on the history of art and photography and seminars in the advancement of new knowledge. Workshops and mentorships can only follow when a student has acquired a rigorous base from which to make critical assessments of experience gained in these other settings. This criticality is essential for the development of new knowledge.
6. Do you work in analog or digital? Did you have to transition to digital?
When I was working with HIV/AIDS programs, I was using analog on a very basic point-and-shoot camera. Using analog was not a choice; it was a necessity at the time, as I needed to have photo documentation. Digital was not so easily available at that time. If digital was available, I would have used it and I probably would have made an extensive archive. Now, for documentary work, I use digital.
7. Digital technology has changed photography drastically over the last few years. Did you initially embrace the changes or resist them? Do you believe the changes have been good for the medium or not? Why?
I do not feel any pressure to be faithful to the medium. So, I did not resist the technological change. Having said that, all changes are painful. One must appreciate them as they come. Now we have choices as to what is best for our individual practices, and we know what results we want from our image to get a desired response.
8. Who or what has inspired you to pursue photography and/or continues to do so?
Photographer Sunil Gupta, who encouraged me to pursue photography, continues to inspire me.
9. Is there a book, an exhibition or a body of work that has really impressed you and maybe even influenced your work / life?
I came into photography much later. Until then, the majority of my visual learning came through cinema and sporadic visits to the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), when I would try copying Raja Ravi Verma and other painters in my drawings.
However, soon after meeting Sunil Gupta, I became familiar with a wide range of photo practitioners from George Platt Lynes, August Sander, Duane Michals, and Robert Frank to Jungjin Lee, Cindy Sherman, Zanele Muholi, and Gauri Gill. There were so many books in his house. I saw many of them, in particular Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, Paul Strand’s Portrait of an Italian Village, and Diane Arbus’s Untitled. But the book I was in love with at the time was, Take Care of Yourself by Sophie Calle.
10. What draws / drew you to the subject matter you are pursuing in your current work? Does it come as a gut feeling, or after analysis or research? Memory? Something that bothers you?
In recent years, in my practice, visuals are coming from my research, memories, and contemporary experiences. Reading and writing for my Ph.D. program has slowed down my urge to make an image, in a good way. I think more, before making it. You could say that research tames the relentless digital image-making progress.
11. Do your projects typically run in parallel, or do you focus on one project at a time?
Mostly they run parallel. However, working on my Ph.D. has made me think of my output as more of an overarching practice, rather than as singular projects. Though the outcomes always look like individual projects, in my mind they are all connected as part of a larger project.
12. What has your journey been as a photographer – from documenting issues related to HIV/AIDS as a social worker to representing the LGBTQ community through your photographic art today?
I did take photographs when I was involved with HIV/AIDS prevention work, but at that time, I did not have the ‘consciousness’ of a photographer. Instead, I had the heart of a naïve social worker, and was trying to idealize my involvement with community work and witnessing the pain they had inherited. The demand from the image was to show progress. To show the changes that reflected how their lives had improved; but, in some ways, it was also very cathartic. And now I make images with a different intent. Artistic expression has given me a certain level of freedom, which comes with great responsibilities when you are working with communities that have been systematically marginalized.
13. Have your ideas and understanding of representation in photography changed since you first started photographing Kothis, Giriyas, Hijras, and others?
You will have to wait for this question to be answered, until I finish my practice-led Ph.D., which is entitled Going Sideways: An Act of Queer Resistance. However, I would say that this series is an important body of work in its original context, which speaks from the perspective of being the subject and the photographer; merging the marginal and mainstream into one.
14. How do you measure success or that a body of work is going well? Do you share it with colleagues or others? Your own sense of it?
I see these as two separate questions. One is measuring success, which can be easily narrowed down to the outcomes, such as how many shows, books, awards, and the fame that one has accumulated. I know it sounds very ‘Zen-like,’ but for me still, the real success is to enjoy what I do, even after years and I find peace in that. In regard to the second part of the question on the body of work, well that must make sense to you, speak to you, and should reflect your conscience and ethos, and I think that is what makes artwork different from the production of objects. However, having a critical community of peers is very important to test your ideas, and to avoid the isolation work can bring, which can lead to becoming a megalomaniac practitioner who feels s/he stands above critique.
15. Do you ever find yourself creatively ‘stuck?’ Is there something that is particularly helpful to you in overcoming this?
I try to unpack the situation, as there are always multiple factors to it. Researching, reading and talking to peers about the project generally help one to move forward. And I do find time for self-care; it is very important that I find peace in the process of making. Although there are things that are beyond our control, for example, being an artist, one is almost always facing a lack of financial support to materialize one’s projects. That can be very frustrating, which requires one to think of innovative ways to raise support for one’s project.
16. How much effort do you put into getting your work shown? Is this important to you? Does showing your work feed your creative process, or does it distract you from it?
Showing work is rewarding, but it can also cause distress if you don’t get favorable reviews. Ideally, one should divide one’s time into halves for making and the management of one’s work. Applying for grants, residencies, awards etc, are all part of the process. Some photographers have gallery representation, which reduces the need to spend as much time on management and selling the work.
17. Do you feel that there are adequate opportunities and avenues to share / show your work in your home country, or do you always look for such opportunities abroad?
Currently I am based in London, so I have access to both home and away. When I started there were very few publications that would exhibit work by young photographers; Camerawork Delhi was one such initiative to engage in a critical dialog with photographic practice. In recent years, I get a sense that there has been an emergence of new places, photo festivals, and photo magazines. Although, having said that, for a country as big as India, there are still too few institutions that showcase and support photo practices.
18. We know that documentary / fine art photography is not always enough to make a living. Some do commercial work, others teach. Are there other photography-related areas that you work with in order to supplement your living? Some that you would recommend aspiring photographers to consider?
Since we also have a lack of direct institutional support in the form of grants, I feel that it is hard to support one’s practice, let alone make it a living. It is true, that teaching and commercial work are the obvious choices, but within these two options one can carve one’s own niche. For instance, because of our individual practices and subject-specific knowledge, Sunil Gupta and I were jointly commissioned to do a book on LGBTQ+ rights.
19. Do you think there is a universal language that photography uses? Do you think that Indian photographers are finding that they are judged by western criteria and standards?
It is true that the discourse around photography since its invention, has been dominated by the Western gaze, and much of its colonial archives proves that – they are filled with images of violence and atrocities, plus the language around it, such as ‘capture’ or ‘shoot,’ reminds me of this subjugation. However, (we) Indians are also obsessed with the ‘West,’ for example the EuroAmerican centricity of the medium. And we seem to have very little or no interest in what is happening in the rest of Asia, Africa, or Latin America. There are an enormous number of photo practitioners about whose work we don’t teach or talk much in our photo curricula. Having said that, we also have an Indian aesthetic in art and beauty, which many photographers are bringing into their work here.
20. With your years of experience, of the lessons you have learned, what is the one thing you wish someone had told you when you were starting out?
I think, while teaching, we focus very much on originality, and like your earlier question ‘a form of purity.’ But being exposed to a range of art histories, I learned that all art forms and cultures have co-influenced each other, always. Very soon I realized that I am a product of hybridity, and we should appreciate this, and be generous about acknowledging its influence in our work, and in the production of new knowledge.
21. How would an interested collector go about buying your work?
They can get in touch either with the gallery, SepiaEYE, in New York (esa@sepiaeye.com), or directly with me at charansingh@me.com.
22. If you didn’t do photography, what other career might you have pursued?
Painting. I did this until my senior school. I wanted to continue for my undergraduate studies, but my father was not sure about its future. In those pre-digital days, there used to be information for wanted or missing persons just before the news on television, with hand-drawn sketches. My father said to me, “After a painting degree, what will you do? How many people will be going missing or wanted, so that you will have a career in there?” And of course, I had read some history of Indian art and was familiar with various art schools and painting styles, but I did not have a vocabulary, nor did I have courage to convince him.
[This interview was conducted prior to the global pandemic.]
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Copyright © Charan Singh
20 November
