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Associate Dean for Design and Media Colette Veasey-Cullors, of the Maryland Institute, College of Art (MICA), one of the top art colleges in the U.S., was brought to India by PhotoSouthAsia (PSA), a project of the MurthyNAYAK Foundation (MNF), for a few reasons. She accompanied us to the Kuppam campus of the Agastya International Foundation, A.P., to explore the prospect of future collaboration between the MurthyNAYAK Foundation, Agastya, and MICA. She served on the jury for the MNF 2019 Documentary Photography Grant with Jury Chair Ram Rahman and Vasant Nayak, of MNF. Colette also held a workshop with photography students at the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication (SACAC), Delhi, where she gave a public lecture on her own work, before returning to the U.S.
We asked Colette some questions about her experiences in India. Following is that conversation.
What was the topic / theme of your workshop with the students at SACAC?
The workshop primarily focused around creating an ethical framework for their individual photographic practices. I focused on assisting the students with finding ways to approach the necessary research and ethical questions in photography around issues like social exclusion, identity, poverty, political and economic oppression, that would help them to better navigate working within these situations. The goal of the workshop was also to help the students understand that their approaches to these important issues and subjects are interrelated to the photographer’s personal connections and biases to such subjects, and can define the way the project is researched, executed, and understood by the public.
Did you find that the topic was relevant to the students and where they are at this time?
The topic was directly related to the work and issues that the students are concerned with and currently photographing. Any photographer who is engaged in documentary photography, needs to understand who they are as an individual and as a photographer in relation to their subject. Photography ethics are the principles that guide how we take and share photographs. Photography ethics are subjective, contextual, and fluid, meaning that every person’s ethics will be different, because ethics are based on a person’s life experience and values.
We all have biases and trying to understand those and identify them is an important component in the attempt at being as truthful to the subject matter as one can be. The students expressed how much they valued this information and the deeper understanding that they found through the workshops.
Were you pleased with their response to the assignment/s?
I could not have asked for better engagement, as well as thoughtful time and effort that the students put into their assignments. They did a great deal of work very quickly, but the quality of work showed that they truly cared about what they were creating. We had some very deep and thought-provoking conversations while critiquing their work.
What did you like best about working with the students at SACAC?
How dedicated they are to learning and growing as photographers and humanitarians. They each care very deeply about society, their communities, and others.
What was most memorable about your trip to India?
I met so many warm, loving people. My heart was truly filled with love and care each and every day. I was and continue to be enamored by the work that is taking place at Agastya International Foundation. I feel a calling to return there and engage in some truly important work. It is a place to which I knew instinctively I must return.
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20 November
