Photo books are the intended way a photographer wants us to view their work. We had a lot of fun creating this list and hope you guys enjoy it too.
1. I’ll be looking at the moon but I’ll be seeing you
by Harikrishna Katragadda and Shweta Upadhyay
Shortlisted for the First Photobook Award, Paris Photo - Aperture Foundation 2022, this book is a collaborative effort between the husband-and-wife artist duo Hari Katragadda and Shweta Upadhyay. It is an ode to the in-betweens- the haunting memories of loves lost and loves past. Harikrishna Katragadda and Shweta Upadhyay use pictures, writings and textures to piece together a memoir of their relationship. Something that excites us is its handmade quality which adds a different dynamic to the viewing experience.
Buy it here
2. Dancing with my camera
This book presents the major phases of the internationally renowned artist’s oeuvre, from her earliest works through today. Along with key past works, including her “museums”, the new project, Let’s See, is especially realized for the Gropius Bau exhibition.
Through a process of meticulous yet intuitive editing, Singh transforms her images into photo architectures, montages and book objects – always guided by fluidity, music, choreography and movement. With her portable “museums” and book objects, Singh has pioneered a form that is simultaneously a book, catalogue, and exhibition. Singh shows how we can conceive of dynamic, mobile and accessible museums and exhibitions.
Buy it here
3. The Opium of Time
by Sunhil Sippy
The Opium of Time is Sunhil Sippy’s meditative exploration of life on the streets of Mumbai. Over one decade and a million steps, Sunhil took photographs of a city he had known for years, but never quite understood. That is until a brutal injury forced him away from potentially ever walking those streets again. It was also the injury which persuaded him to return to street photography, and this time his explorations were deeper and more intense.
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4. Guftgu
The Guftgu book published by Offset Projects looks at the interrogations and practices of 10 contemporary photographers in South Asia presented as individual chapters designed in context to each artist’s practice and process. The works featured look at inquiries on identity formation and history building through perspectives of gender, caste and inheritance among many others.
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5. Majnu Ka Tilla Diaries
In her most recent project, Chopra has explored the lives of the residents of Majnu Ka Tilla, a refugee colony of Tibetans in New Delhi where thousands of exiles have lived for nearly 40 years. Chopra informs her photographs with extensive personal interviews, coupling images and text in a diary-like format to reveal the sitter’s views on life and a communal optimism that one day they will return to Tibet.
Buy it here
6. DORI
by Kaamna Patel
Incorporating images with family archives and conversations, this self-published photo book 'Dori' by Kaamna Patel stands testament to a life shared between two strangers who met as children, and of their love through the ages. Beneath the photographs and many inserts, there is also a text by Veeranganakumari Solanki.
Kaamna is a visual artist currently based between India, France & Asia Pacific. Her books are self-published under the alias JOJO with a focus on process and representations through handcrafted books
The book dummy was shortlisted for the Kassel Dummy Awards 2019.
Buy it here
7. The Sapper
by Bharat Sikka
Bharat Sikka’s The Sapper is as multi-layered as the relationship that it narrates between a father and an adult son. Through photography, Sikka creates the possibilities for observation, recollection, close comparison, and collaboration, giving this long-term project a title that describes and belies its substance. The Sapper is an entitling that offers up a cue for the viewer: an explanation of the circumstances, behaviours and predilections that we can read into the portrayal of this former “sapper” of the Indian Army Corps of Engineers.
But it here
8. This Golden Mile
by Kavi Pujara
The project takes place along The Golden Mile – a one-mile stretch of road which has sar shops, Indian restaurants, and jewellers – just 10 minutes away from where Kavi grew up. “It’s about the arteries and veins that come from it, giving life to the parts of a neighbourhood away from, the central commercial thoroughfare,” Kavi says. “The Golden Mile is both an entry point and an ending, the last mile of a long journey to Britain.”
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9. I’m not here
In this particular project, ‘I’m Not Here,’ Banerjee perfectly encapsulates the bewildering feeling of going back to the place that you once called home, only to feel as though you never lived there at all. At the end of it all, we’re left with a sense of hiding in plain sight, as he empties his frames of specifics, allowing his theme to tie up the loose ends.
Buy it here
Also read - Viewer or Voyeur, Ethics in street photography and the dilemma it poses.
SOURCES
Guardian
Setanta
Steidl
Aperture Foundation
OffsetProjects
Pictor
Cafe Lehmitz
Nature Morte
It’s Nice That
Joinpaperplanes
Homegrown
🖤 So happy to see these books coming from my homeland!