1. What is your earliest memory of how or what attracted you to photography?
My father used to work in Nigeria, and that is where I grew up. My father was an avid wildlife photographer and had two big trunks full of cameras and lenses. I used to accompany him on his photography trips. So, photography has always been, in some form or another, a part of my life. My first camera, an Asahi Pentax K2, was a gift from my dad.
2. Share your experience of studying photojournalism at University of Missouri. How has it influenced and informed your practice?
It was a wonderful experience. It transformed me a lot, not just as a photographer, but as a person, too. To be able to learn from the best, and to work with fellow students from all over the world, was a great education. Mizzou taught me a lot of things – the importance of being theoretically and intellectually prepared to generate relevant conversations and avoid clichés, to be an ethical photographer, and to use technology for better storytelling. But most importantly, it taught me how to be an invisible photographer where the people, communities, stories, or issues have to be more important than myself.
3. In your opinion, is it important to have a formal training in Photography?
I think it is important to reassess our understanding of photography; to view it not simply as an art form or documentary practice, but to question if it has something new to say, show, explain, or contribute. A formal training may or may not help. But I am very clear that a good education does help here. A formal structure does not only smooth the learning curve, it can also be a great means to receiving in-depth knowledge, acquiring specialized skills, and developing an acumen to use photography in completely new and radical ways.
4. If you were to design a photo program for young Indian photographers what would it look like? Degree courses? Workshops? Mentorships?
I would design a mentorship program that would help photographers acquire life skills needed to fully comprehend and work with the vastness and beauty of our country; our diversity, geography, religions, cultures, histories, politics, and our communities. I’d want young photographers to experiment with epistemologies, frameworks, and ideas to actualize unique photo projects. And I’d want the program to be designed in such a way that it can help them produce photographic works that efficiently combine intellectual and aesthetic perspectives, using a range of materials, concepts, approaches, and methods.
5. Who or what has inspired you to pursue photography and/or continues to do so?
I think very early in my life, both personal and professional, I chose to work with the marginalized and oppressed communities. Whatever I do – photography, teaching, or living – all of it is guided by the thought of being able to help others raise their voices against injustices and prejudices.
6. Is there a book, an exhibition or a body of work that has really impressed you and maybe even influenced your work / life?
I think, poetry and painting have influenced me the most. Farsi and Urdu poets like Ghalib, Meer, Kaifi Azmi, and Gulzar have shaped my life. And then there are painters like JMW Turner and Caravaggio whose works inspired me to look at light in a certain way. I saw the Fishermen at Sea by JMW Turner and An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump by Joseph Wright of Derby in London around 12 years ago. I think that is when I knew, aesthetically, the kind of photography that I wanted to do.
7. How did your shift from studying Indian Forestry Management to studying photojournalism happen?
My studies at IIFM, and later a job with CARE, made me look at India in a radically different way; the real India. Working with some of the most committed social workers and development organizations was a life-altering experience. But after working for five years, I started to search for new ways to engage with socio-cultural and political issues. The desire was not only to contribute to old debates, but also to seek fresh answers to contemporary questions. Photography gave me that space to think aloud; a medium to communicate with a large audience. And that is also why I do not view it as a shift but as an application of my previous education and experiences.
8. Do your projects typically run in parallel, or do you focus on one project at a time?
I find it difficult to work on many projects at the same time. I became a photographer ten years ago and, since then, I have been working on just one project. I took a break from photography around a year ago, as I felt that my work had started to become repetitive and redundant. But I am utilizing this time by teaching photography to young students, making a film with a friend, and creating a book out of my 10-year-long photo project.
9. 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 think it is a mix of both. My own ideas, intentions, research and understanding keeps me aware of my direction. But I rely more on experienced and informed colleagues to help me critically evaluate my work and suggest if I am closer to my objectives or not.
10. Do you ever find yourself creatively ‘stuck?’ Is there something that is particularly helpful to you in overcoming this?
To be honest, I rarely look at my work as the product of ‘creativity.’ I have seen so many wonderfully talented and creative people around me, and I find it difficult to believe that I am ‘creating’ something. So, fortunately, I have never been creatively stuck.
11. How much effort do you put into getting your work shown? Is this important to you? If so, why? Does showing your work feed your creative process or does it distract from it?
In the initial years of the project, I did show the work around a lot. I was doing so for a number of reasons – I was a new photographer and I wanted feedback on my work, I wanted others to accept and appreciate me as a photographer, and I wanted to build professional connections with important people in the photo community. But I stopped doing that around 4-5 years ago, as I realized that they were not the audience that I should be reaching out to, and most of the feedback that I was getting from the photo world was just talking about the aesthetics of the work – they were avoiding its ideology / politics which I believe is the most important aspect of the project.
12. 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?
I think it’s the same everywhere. There are a number of opportunities and avenues for all kinds of work. It simply depends on the photographer on how and where s/he would like to take and talk about the work.
13. We know that fine art or documentary 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?
I teach, and for my work I often seek grants and fellowships. But I am also involved with some friends who are advertising and fashion photographers. I often collaborate with them, giving them new ideas for their work, and sometimes photographing for the assignments, too.
14. What draws / drew you to the subject matter you are pursuing in your current work?
As a young boy growing up in Nigeria and India, I never considered Muslims to be different. I grew up with Muslim friends and in neighborhoods where Muslims were not in minority. My best friends were (still are) Muslims. I never felt intimidated entering a Mosque and have spent countless evenings sweeping floors before the prayers alongside the caretaker of the Mosque next to my ancestral house in India. My fondness for Persian poetry, Sufi music and Mughal architecture, all comes from my association with Muslims. But I wonder what changed me and how over the years I started searching for meanings in words like Muslim and Islam.
In 2002, the western part of India saw the country’s worst communal riots between Hindus and Muslims. According to BBC News, 790 Muslims were killed, 223 more people were reported missing, and 298 Muslim shrines and 205 mosques were destroyed. 61,000 Muslims fled their homes. I was a student volunteer with CARE and was a member of a communal harmony project team that was formulated six months after the riots were over. Our team had to meet riot-affected families, counsel them, and develop plans for their rehabilitation. I was entrusted with the responsibility of interacting with adolescents and young adults. My only task was to be that someone to whom they could talk, to make them realize that our organization was genuinely concerned about their situation, and to help them openly share their thoughts with me. Initially, I could not foresee the implications of my task, but now I believe that it was one of the most influential experiences of my life. The sight of young but maimed, blinded, raped, and paralyzed human beings still haunts me. Their questions like, “Why me?” still bother me. Whenever I try to find out why I thought of working with young Muslims, I cannot help but think of all those innocent but now ruined lives that I came across years ago.
15. Given that Muslims all over are suffering the same plight, as stated in your artist statement for The Silence of ‘Others,’ why have you chosen to document them only in America, England, and France and not closer to home?
Actually, I am working with the Muslim community in my home country too. I have been working in Kashmir for the past two years and I am now working in New Delhi. In fact, my motivation to work on this subject comes from my life experiences in India. Where on one hand I am amazed by India’s religious pluralism and syncretism, on the other I am also disturbed by the constant clashes between its many religious communities. The Babri mosque demolition, the Bombay bombings and riots, the killing of Dr. Graham Staines, the Chamba massacre, the Gujarat riots, the Muzaffarnagar riots, and now the anti-Muslim pogrom in New Delhi; all these events have shaped my life and continue to direct my work.
And there are other reasons I chose to work in the U.S., the U.K., and France. What one can observe or document in these countries, it might not be found anywhere else. Firstly, all these countries have Muslims, mostly immigrants, from different regions of the world. The U.K. has a Muslim population, which is predominantly of a South Asian origin, like from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The Muslims in the U.S. come from various countries, but more from the Arab / Middle Eastern region. And the Muslims in France are mostly from the Maghreb – Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria – and the Comoro Islands. So, the Muslim communities in the U.S., the U.K., and France have cultures, languages, customs and practices that are very different from each other. Secondly, the presence of Muslims in the U.K. and France is very closely connected to the brutal colonial past of these two countries. In the U.S., immigration was controlled, and only highly-skilled professionals were allowed to settle on American soil. But, because of its own wars and political interference in so many Muslim countries around the world, the U.S. has been forced to admit thousands of Muslim families as refugees. So, the geopolitical histories and life experiences of the Muslim communities in the U.K., the U.S., and France are very diverse and unique. Thirdly, these three countries, being highly developed, wealthy and geopolitically influential, have long held control over media, trade, and pop culture. There is a tremendous amount of research that shows how these countries, especially the U.S., have fueled Islamophobia and the hatred of Muslims – through journalism, cinema, politics – in order to justify their illegal wars and imperialist agendas in several Muslim countries around the world.
So, the ‘lived’ experience of an American-Iraqi or American-Afghan Muslim, displaced because of American wars, is going to be very different from a Muslim in New Delhi. Similarly, the experience of an Algerian Muslim in France, whose forefathers were brought to the country as slaves and who still experiences racism because of his religion, culture, and skin color, is going to be very different from a Muslim in Kolkata. There are many such reasons that I chose to focus more on the U.S., the U.K., and France.
16. Have you always worked with digital photography, or have you used the analog format, as well? If so, did you initially embrace the changes or resist them? Do you believe the changes have been good for the medium or not? Why?
I started off with analog and later moved on to digital photography. I still sometimes use analog, though. I was very excited to shift to digital. It felt really liberating. But (my personal opinion) the feel, the intimacy and the rawness of film photography are still superior to digital photography. The changes have been good in a number of ways. As we all know, it has democratized photography and has helped several new perspectives and narratives to emerge from different corners of the world. But the discipline, the sincerity, the slowness, and the engagement that the medium demands have been somewhat lessened with the arrival of digital cameras.
And now, as a teacher of photography, I have come to believe this even more. The entire focus seems to be on the end product – the images – but the importance of the process itself, and how it can help a photographer to evolve as an artist and as a human being, too, are getting lost in the digital environment.
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?
Photography definitely uses a universal language. For example, an image of a mother caring for her wounded child will evoke the same emotions and expression in India as it would in any other country, be it the U.S. or Australia. There is a vocabulary of emotions, feelings, expressions, and ideas that photography utilizes to find universal acceptance. But I don’t think Indian photographers, or even for that matter Asian or African photographers, believe that they are being judged by Western criteria and standards. I think the real issue many have is with the eye, vision, or perspective with which Western photography, for decades, has been looking at the non-Western cultures and communities. The colonial or imperialist perspective, the exoticization, the attempt to abridge, depoliticize or trivialize serious issues so as to make them more palatable to a Western audience, or to disregard native voices and to solely champion a Western voice on local issues, are the kinds of problems that a lot of Indian / Asian / African photographers face while interacting with a Western photography editor, publication, curator, gallery, or museum.
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?
I think there are two very important things that I have learnt with experience. This is also what I share with a lot of student photographers. Firstly, it would have been nice if I knew earlier that photography is a way of life and not just a profession or an artistic pursuit. We need to live our lives through photography in order to create something unique and relevant. Secondly, I wish I had known that, in order to improve one’s photography, inspiration has to come from sources other than photography. In my case, it came to be cinema and poetry. I learnt that if we need to nourish the soil on farmland, we do not add more soil to it. We must add the right kinds and amounts of nutrients. The same is true with photography. In order to nourish our photography, we cannot just be influenced by photographers or photography. We need to look at cinema, literature, poetry, theatre, music, and real-life experiences to refine and advance our photography.
19. How would an interested collector go about buying your work?
I am an independent photographer not represented by any agency or gallery. So, the best way would be to get in touch with me directly by writing to: bharat@bharatchoudhary.com
20. If you didn’t do photography, what other career might you have pursued?
I think I would have kept on working as a social development professional with NGOs.
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*This interview was conducted in early 2020.
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Copyright © Bharat Choudhary
20 November
