Anita Khemka

From Munna Guru and Ramkali – Photograph © Anita Khemka

Upon first encountering Khemka’s photography and her photo-based work, one would likely categorize it as social documentary. She is clearly concerned with those marginalized by society. But there is more at work than the critical eye constructing the work. Whether it is her body of work on India’s hijras, or the X-rays and accompanying portraits in her series, Pellet Identity, created in collaboration with her partner, Imran Kokiloo, there is heart at the center of Khemka’s art – a clear empathy for the subjects of her work, which has been exhibited widely in India and abroad.

The COVID-19 lockdown resulted in Shared Solitude, a series of family portraits in collaboration with her partner. This was featured in the Critical Collective, as a critique by Gayatri Sinha, and was accompanied with an interview. The work was selected as part of a 2021 group exhibition in Amsterdam, Touching Absence – States of Mind in Times of Crisis.

Khemka is also an educator and a researcher. She headed the Photography Department at the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication (SACAC) from August 2015 until February 2019. She has since worked as an independent contractor with the MurthyNAYAK Foundation, doing research for this resource, PhotoSouthAsia. She lives in Nainital and is represented by PHOTOINK.

Exhibitions

In 2005, a German film Between the Lines – India’s Third Gender was produced based on her work on hijras. The film traced the lives of three hijras, with great frankness and sensitivity. Self-Portraits, a series by Khemka, has been included in group exhibitions in Helsinki (2011), Stockholm (2010), London & Barcelona (2009), Paris (2007) and Frankfurt (2006). Her series entitled Pellet Identity was exhibited at FotoFest International in Houston, TX (2018), where photographers from India were highlighted.

Khemka was an attendee of the SPE / MNF Photo Education Symposium, 5-7.Jan.2020, in New Delhi.

Books

Imagining Ourselves: Global Voices from a New Generation of Women edited by Paula Goldman, New World Library, First Edition, 2006, ISBN: 10-1577315243 [This collection includes Khemka’s Sweet Sixteen series, which are portraits of sixteen-year-olds.]

Pandemic : Facing AIDS by Kofi A. Annan, Nan Richardson, Rory Kennedy, Umbrage Editions, New York, 2003, ISBN: 13: 9781884167171 [Khemka’s photographs are included in this collection by more than 75 artists from 50 nations.]