Serious Photography, The Art Market, Paul Fernandes Retrospective and more

NEWS

Open Call for Research Fellowship 2013

Delfina Foundation is inviting applicants from India and Turkey for the Research Fellowship 2013, which is in partnership with Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) and Goldsmiths College’s Department of Visual Cultures and the PhD Program in Curatorial/Knowledge.

The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) is supporting a research fellow from India to be in residence alongside a participant from Turkey supported by SAHA. Indian participants should apply directly to FICA.The Research Fellowship 2013 aims to provide an opportunity for intensive research in the field of visual culture by curators and researchers who have an innovative visual culture project, and who might benefit from the research and curatorial work that is being done by the fellowship's partner institutions in London. Artists are welcome to apply; however this residency is largely focused on the development of critical-curatorial discourse, not singularly on artistic practice. 

The 2013 recipients will receive:

A 10-12 week residency (late September/October to December) in London, including one economy return flight to London, a bursary for per diems and basic living costs, and accommodation. Please note that final dates will be confirmed with the selected applicants.

Access to attend Goldsmith’s post-graduate courses and the Curatorial/Knowledge seminars

Access to the Iniva’s Stuart Hall Library and Archive

An opportunity to assist with Iniva and Delfina Foundation’s programming

Goldsmiths, Iniva and Delfina Foundation will provide an important platform to the recipient scholar to meet fellow research scholars, artists and a network of professionals in the field of contemporary art in London

For application details and any further information, interested applicants can visit the FICA website: http://www.ficart.org/Programs_Awards3_2013.html 

The closing date for applications is the 15th of July 2013, 5:00pm.

Talk On Art Practices

(a painting by Kate Javens)

Gallery Five Forty Five of Bangalore brings a new perspective on various art practices by artists outside of India, in an interactive talk session with two American artists, Kate Javens and Sheila Kramer.

The talk is to take place on the 28th of June 2013, from 5 30 pm to 7:00 pm

Kate Javens, lives and works in New York and is an artist with a long tradition of painting animal subjects, using them to personify unsung heroes in American history. The artist will show an image history of her work with special emphasis on a recent NYC Harlem series, including the blessings of elephants from her trip to India with the Brearley School. 

Sheila Kramer is a painter who translates her memories of the land, sea and sky into hovering presences of light and forms through vibrant colors. Her work is inspired by the landscape of Ireland, Northern Europe, her childhood home in Iowa, and the skies of New York City. She will present a fifteen minute talk discussing how her life as a painter, aviator and teacher are intertwined. The talk will include a short flying video along with images of her paintings from Ireland, England, Costa Rica and New York City. 

Retrospective - Paul Fernandes

(Paul Fernandes)

Urban Solace -  Cafe for the Soul, Bangalore, presents a solo show of an entire collection of paintings by eminent artist, cartoonist, illustrator, Paul Fernandes. The collection comprises a whopping fifty nine water colour prints, which barely touch the tip of the iceberg as far as the artist’s large body of work is concerned. 

Documenting a city, he loves and fondly reminisces about, the works capture all the little nuances of the laid back city over the decades which the artist has skillfully painted in his precise illustrations.

Urban Solace Gallery in its attempt to bring to the fore for the very first time such a comprehensive retrospective of the eminent artist, succeeds in delivering to the viewer a lost part of culture of the city of Bangalore, the city’s soul through a human hand.

The show is on view till the 23rd of June 2013.



The Art Market 

(The Art Market)

Visual Disobedience, Mumbai, an artists community dedicated to bring forth young and quirky works of art by smart young artists with the sole belief that art is every one’s birth right and not exclusive for a niche crowd, presents ‘The Art Market’. The Art Market is a concerted effort to break all barriers and social conditioning and freeing art from its imposed intellectual shackles.

The Art Market is a canopy for a number of activities where artists of all kinds can come and interact, sell their works, present their music and performances to a wide range of viewers and interested enthusiasts. With an intent to consume, enjoy and buy art, the Art Market acts as a meeting place of the creatives from all sections of society.

Visual Disobedience artists will put up stalls selling their works - an intimate show where one can interact with the artist, before buying the art. The artists participating in the show are Mira Malhotra, Vandhana Rajan Swamy, Amrita Bagchi, Vikrant Shitole, Jai Ranjit, Priyesh Trivedi, Raj Chettiyar, Avantika Mathur. 

Along with visual arts, are stand up comedians Aditya Desai, Sonali Thakkar, Siddharth Dudeja, Angad Ranyal along with performances from singer-songwriter, Bone Broke aka Dinkar Dwivedi

The Art Market is to be held at WTF, Versova, Mumbai on the 23rd June 2013.
Call +91 9769930240 for further details.


(News reports by Sushma Sabnis)

FEATURE

What Are You Saying?

Photographer Prashant Panjiar says serious photographers have to concentrate on what they are saying in the picture

(Photo by Prashant Panjiar)

Photojournalist and independent photographer Prashant Panjiar, who is about to teach a Travelling Lens master class photography workshop with Palani Mohan in Ladakh, says serious photography is about more than technique.

“The master class is about helping people think about the process of making images. It’s about how one can immerse oneself in a place or subject and come up with one’s own experience of that event,” says Prashant, co-founder and managing trustee of Nazar Foundation, a non-profit trust for the promotion of the photographic arts. He is also the co-founder and one of the creative directors of the Delhi Photo Festival.

Prashant has decades of experience in many kinds of photography including photojournalism, India Today, Outlook documentary photography and gathering images for non-profit organizations. But instead of restricting himself, he prefers simply to be known as a photographer.

“It’s just a means of expression for me, like some people write and others make music.” The only distinction he makes between all these fields is that of time.

“I have worked on many projects as a photojournalist in a magazine and the only difference in approach is that with documentary projects, one has the time to watch the events unfold. Whereas photojournalism requires quick stories where one has to photograph as the events unfold,” explains Prashant.

“I have had both experiences and I continue to be a photojournalist, but I spend most of my time on longer projects because of the leisure of time and the creative process is different.”

The creative process though, he says, is never about technique. “It’s about what you understand and how much or what you see. To be a good photographer, it is important to keep in mind what is being said in the picture.”

Photography today, he observes, has been democratized to a large extent, by virtue of anybody being able to take a picture. “Unfortunately, with democratization there’s also a dumbing down happening all over the world and in India. Serious photographers, therefore have to distinguish themselves from people who capture memories or record events. They have to realize this and be critical of their works because getting likes on Facebook is not enough.”

(Prasahnt Panjiar)

This is even more true for self-taught photographers, like Prashant, who learnt by studying the works of photographers such as Raghu Rai.

“I learnt from my contemporaries and by studying photographers from all over the world, many of them greats from the 20 century.”

His biggest learnings were from his experiences witnessing conflicts across the country, from the Naxalite movement in 1977-78 to the communal riots in Bagalpur and Bombay and the Babri Masjid demolition.

“They not only informed my photography, but also the way I look at life and society. It’s because of what I witnessed that I think about society and social issues, which continue to be a part of all the work that I do. I got my education from there.”

He believes that the best way to learn photography is to go to a photography school and take up a professional course. “If people cant take up courses that span over a few years, then self-study and good workshops are a good way of refining the technique and the process of making pictures.”

(Report by Harshini Vakkalanka for The Hindu)