The works of these five photographers complicates this role and relationship of the individual and the city, for their work does not reduce the image to its aesthetic basics but use the potential of the image to tell stories which are otherwise untold. They are stories of spaces that are invisible or underground, mute spaces hidden under the bustling cover of the city. They are stories of people and their relationships, of which the artist is part of. They speak of worlds that emerge and disappear without being noticed, and of those which stay in background. They speak in tongues that are familiar, satirical, metaphoric. Traces and glimpses are often preferred over grand narratives, where the subjects speak on their own and the photographer sets up a dialogue with the subject rather than speak for them. Picturesque documentaries they are not. Subtly constructed compositions, they are of the artist’s experiences and relationships with the subjects and spaces. The works opens the viewer to a whole set of questions about the city that is Delhi and the different lives it hides within. It also engages with the complex role of the artist/photographer in today’s highly visualised world, where the technology for photographing the city is no longer in the hands of a privileged few.

Featured artists: Atul Bhalla, Gauri Gill, Sunil Gupta, Malini Kochupillai and Asim Waqif.

Vadehra Art Gallery

Image: © Gauri Gill
Courtesy of the artist and Vadehra Art Gallery