1. What is your earliest memory of how or what attracted you to photography?
Like in many families, my father was always the photographer in the family. He died when I was 13, and left a void in our photo albums. In college, in Chennai, India, I took a photography class through the physics department. I remember falling in love with the image slowly emerging like magic in the developer. I was also captivated by the medium’s connection to reality and, subconsciously, its connection to my father.
2. Did you study photography formally in a college or university? What was your experience?
I earned a Master of Fine Arts in photography. Frankly, my graduate school experience was rather negative, as my professors did not understand what I was trying to say in my work; neither could they point me towards resources to help me expand and build on the concepts I wanted to work on. I would credit the wonderful, supportive photo community that I found outside of graduate school, which include my now husband David H. Wells, Nancy Brokaw, Howard Brunner, Bill Thomas, Yee Jan Bao, and a number of people who mentored me during my artist residency at Anderson Ranch soon after graduate school.
3. How did this education inform your practice?
The stereotype of a graduate education is that your professors demolish all your preconceived notions and assumptions. That model may be true, but I also think a good education provides a supportive environment to help pick up the pieces and put them together in a new, well-informed way. My education made me realize what I didn’t want to do or say and to avoid clichés about India. I picked up the pieces during graduate school from the photographers that I met working at the Peters Valley Craft Center, where I lived at the time, and from my residency at Anderson Ranch.
4. In your opinion, is it important to have a formal training in photography? Why or why not?
That’s an increasingly difficult question to answer with so much technical information and so many tutorials available on the internet. I think that my teaching philosophy may answer this question more fully. My philosophy is that if students just want to learn techniques they can go on the web. The analogy that I give is that students who speak English still benefit from an English class, as it helps hone their writing skills, which enables them to speak more eloquently to get their message across. Today everyone is a “photographer.” So, it is my job as a professor to help students tease out the concepts that they want to communicate visually and help them to choose the right techniques to accomplish that. For example, Photoshop’s capabilities are so vast that it is impossible for one person to know everything that it is capable of. But, with the right guidance, students can learn the tools they need to strongly communicate their visual concepts through their artwork.
5. If you were to design a photo program for young Indian photographers what would it look like?
I’m a little hesitant to give a blanket answer, as I haven’t lived in India for over 20 years and I don’t think there is one answer that fits all. As a professor, I prefer students who go to universities / liberal arts programs, where they are exposed to a variety of subjects (and especially where they don’t have to choose their majors before going to college) as these students bring their interests, and thus the content, into the classroom. I also think those students who move on to graduate school have more to say. There are a variety of formats that work, which include majors, minors, workshops etc.
6. You were born in England, moved to India when you were ten and lived there for quite a while, and then moved to the U.S. How has the experience of living in these three countries influenced your practice?
Yes, I lived in India for about 18 years before coming to the U.S. The influences of the three cultures has made me who I am today and influences the kind of work that I do. For example, in England, I didn’t experience the patriarchal expectations or society that I faced when I later went to India. This made me realize that, as a woman, I have choices.
I also think that my trans-nationality gives me the perspective of being both an insider and an outsider, which allows for a different outlook on life, art etc.
7. Who or what has inspired you to pursue photography and/or continues to do so?
During my undergraduate studies in India, I was lucky enough to get into an optional photography class taught through the Physics department. My memory is that fifteen of us shared one camera and two rolls of film for the whole semester! The magic of seeing the image come up in the developer, combined with the medium’s inherent roots in reality, inspired me to further pursue photography after completing an undergraduate degree in mathematics.
8. Is there a book, an exhibition, or a body of work that has really impressed you and maybe even influenced your work / life?
There have been many influences, but one book in particular is A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki, which explores the histories of different ethnicities in the USA, from their perspectives. It has been very influential.
9. What draws / drew you to the subject matter you are pursuing in your current work?
As my husband likes to joke, my work is all about “me, me, me!” Initially, my projects always start with something that I have experienced (Memories of India, Bollywood Satirized, An Indian from India), and more recently they have been about giving communities a voice (To Majority Minority, Open Wound). After I have an idea, there is a lot of research that goes into a project.
For example, the concept of Open Wound – Stories of Partition – India & Pakistan, started when I was expanding the project re-Generations from just India to compare family photographs in Vietnam and Israel. I chose Vietnam because of its significant history with the United States. I chose Israel because my Jewish stepdaughter had told me repeatedly that I needed to better understand her cultural background after she had visited India with me on several occasions. In Israel, I photographed in the West Bank and within Israel. I was extremely moved while photographing a Holocaust survivor and after visiting the Holocaust museum. It was then that I fully appreciated the value of every family’s story, and realized that I was only scratching the surface of the stories with my photo animations. The experience also prompted me to look back on my own cultural history, in terms of the Partition of British Colonial India, the 1947 catastrophe that resulted in India, Pakistan, and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). During the Partition, an estimated 14 million people were displaced within three months. Over a million died.
The children who survived those traumatic events are now aging and will take their stories with them when they are gone. Because the India-Pakistan conflict is largely unresolved, and until recently there was nothing that memorialized the tragic event, I wanted to relook at this history and collaborate with the Partition survivors to tell their stories to a larger audience, so that their stories live on. With this mission, I applied for and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship (2012) to India, where I created the portfolio Open Wound: Stories of Partition. While doing this work, I discovered that four of my high school classmates’ families had experienced Partition. Unbelievably, this horror, experienced firsthand by the families of my friends, was not a subject covered in my history classes in India.
It was after that I was so bothered by the realization that I was only telling one side of Partition’s complicated history, that I expanded the project to include the Pakistani and Bangladeshi side of the story. I did this with the support of the Silvia Chandley Professorship in Peace Studies in Nonviolence from the University of Rhode Island (2014-2016). My own experience of living between cultures undoubtedly influenced my interest in exploring multiple perspectives on Partition. While I am Indian, I am also a scholar and a humanist (though not in the traditional definition). I’m aware that there are multiple sides to every story and different perspectives need to be shared and heard.
The last few years have been an emotional rollercoaster. Photographing and interviewing families from Pakistan – people who may consider Indians as their archenemy – has been an enlightening, heart-wrenching, and deeply satisfying experience. Over and over I heard (and now know), that letting go of our preconceived notions of the “other” helps us realize that we have more in common than not. In 2016, I completed Open Wound – Stories of Partition – India and Pakistan, that was exhibited in India in 2017 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Partition (2017). It was also included in my solo exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
10. Do your projects typically run in parallel, or do you focus on one project at a time?
I usually work on one project at a time (there have been exceptions). When I am in the creative mode, I need to cut off from the outside world, submerge and focus. I usually research my projects during the fall and spring semesters and do the actual creation during the summer.
11. You work in both the analogue and the digital formats. Do you have a preference?
I choose my process based on the concept that I am conveying. So, in other words, I love both, but what I use is determined by the ideas.
12. In quite a few of your works, found photographs serve as the raw material or are the beginnings of what you want to say essentially. Would you agree?
Yes, I agree. I always want my work to be accessible to a larger audience. One of the ways of doing that is by starting with imagery that is somewhat familiar as an entry point into the work. So, I use popular imagery like Bollywood posters, family photos, and iconic photographs of Native Americans.
13. You don’t use photography in the traditional way it’s often used. Can you please talk a bit about this choice / departure?
One of my first intentions is to make my work accessible outside of an “art” audience. Using popular imagery that is familiar is a first step (Bollywood posters, family photos, photographs of Native Americans). But that step then means that I am not creating images that are documents so much as using the digital toolbox to get my concept across by building on existing imagery. Some call me a photo-based artist.
14. How do you measure success or that a body of work is going well?
My measure of success of a body of work is if I am able to get the project funded through grants and fellowships and if it is exhibited and published. Another measure is if the work sparks a discussion, conversation, or a heated debate.
15. Do you ever find yourself creatively ‘stuck?’ Is there something that is particularly helpful to you in overcoming this?
My ideas, and hence creativity, ebb and flow. Not all of my projects have been successful, but I always find that one thing leads to another, and so I doggedly stay with it. Creativity is never a straight or easy ride. It has its ups and downs and, for me, is not a switch that I can turn on and off.
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 from it?
I do want to exhibit my work, as I think I have something to say! My goal through exhibiting my work is having the viewer say / think, “I hadn’t thought about it that way.” But exhibiting to me includes museums, galleries, on the streets of India, in movie theaters that show Bollywood movies, and now increasingly in public spaces that make the work more accessible to a larger audience.
17. 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?
I don’t think there is a universal language to photography. I am not sure that I have a single opinion on whether Indian photographers are judged by western criteria and standards, as many of them have studied abroad, so it is inherent they may hew to western ideas. But I would say that Japanese photography, collectively, shares more of a homogeneous aesthetic than Indian photography, and that diversity could be taken as a strength of Indian photography.
18. 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?
Rather than the one thing I wish someone had told me, I would like to mention the advice that people gave me that has helped me in my career. (1) Have a sounding board of 2-3 people who you trust, so that they can tell you when your work is not working and when it is. (2) Think about your 5, 10, and 20-year career and relationship goals. This helps you create a plan for yourself and brings clarity as to what you should be focusing on. (3) That being successful at anything takes a lot of hard work, focus, and dedication. A lot of times I see younger artists looking for “fame” early on without having substantial work. (4) An artist’s work needs to show consistency and not be formulaic. I prefer it when an artist is not known for just one body of work. (5) Study the resumes of other artists you admire and learn how they got there. Don’t get disillusioned if you don’t have the background resources that they have, but rather find ways to compensate for that.
19. How would an interested collector go about buying your work?
Contact my gallery, which is sepiaEYE, New York City, and/or have a studio visit with me.
20. If you didn’t do photography, what other career might you have pursued?
I am not sure that I would be as happy as I am doing anything else. But other issues that are important to me are fighting for equal rights for everyone and to protect the Earth from the climate crisis. The topic of climate change hasn’t shown up in my artwork, but has recently influenced a new class that I will be co-teaching at the University of Rhode Island after my sabbatical.
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Photograph © David H. Wells
20 November
