Indigo Blue Art is proud to present Tinted by Tradition, an exhibition showcasing handcoloured vintage photography by renowned artist Waswo X. Waswo, created in collaboration with third generation Rajasthani hand-colourist Rajesh Soni.
A traveller and photographer of American origin, Waswo is a distinguished artist renowned for his Indian miniature painting and vintage photography. Tinted by Tradition features a selection of photographs that subvert ethnographic clichés, and play with calendar art and popular iconography.
Waswo uses backdrops painted especially for his studio by local craftsmen, which were done by copying Waswo’s previous photographs, or painting forest scenes from imagination. Props (cycle-carts, clay pots, antique armchairs, Indian musical instruments, etc) culled from streets, farms and local shops in Udaipur, and sometimes live animals are also used in his staged photographs.
Central to the theatricality of his photographs are his models, whom he employs – often acting as themselves – to become participants in a mutually constructed enactment of life and fantasy. Photographing exclusively in natural light, Waswo creates images that hover subtly between the real and the imaginary. Rajesh Soni's gentle hand-colouring of Waswo’s black and white images adds the finishing touch to works that blur the line between traditional and contemporary.
About the Artists:
Waswo X. Waswo was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the U.S.A. He studied at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee, The Milwaukee Center for Photography, and Studio Marangoni, The Centre for Contemporary Photography in Florence, Italy. His books, India Poems: The Photographs, published by Gallerie Publishers in 2006, and Men of Rajasthan, published by Serindia Contemporary in 2011, are available worldwide. The artist has lived and travelled in India for over ten years and has lived in Udaipur, Rajasthan, for the past seven. There he collaborates with a variety of local artists including the photo hand-colourist Rajesh Soni. He has also produced a series of autobiographical miniature paintings in collaboration with artist R. Vijay. Waswo is represented in India by Gallerie Espace, New Delhi and Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai; in Thailand by Serindia Gallery, Bangkok; and in Switzerland by JanKossen Contemporary, Basel.
Waswo’s works have recently been acquired by numerous public and private museums, including White Rabbit Gallery, Australia. He is currently exhibiting in a group show alongside leading international artists including Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin at the Mori Art Museum in Japan to mark its tenth anniversary this year.
Rajesh Soni was born on the 6th of August, 1981. He is an artist living in Udaipur, Rajasthan, who has become known primarily for his abilities to hand paint digital photographs. He is the son of artist Lalit Soni, and the grandson of Prabhu Lal Soni (Verma), who was once court photographer to the Maharana Bhopal Singh of Mewar. Prabhu Lal was not only a court photographer, but also a hand-colourist who painted the black and white photographs that he produced. His skills of hand-colouring photographs were passed down to Rajesh through his father Lalit.
Image: © Waswo X. Waswo & Rajesh Soni, Indigo Blue Art
