INDIA: Contemporary Photography and New Media Art

Description

INDIA: Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art will present over 45 contemporary artists and collectives working in dialogue with the long history and emergent future of India and its people. The book will focus on the contemporary moment, and a range of approaches will be included, including art photography, contemporary practices, installation, moving image, journalistic and documentary photography. Themes include caste and class, the partitioning of the sub -continent, gender and sexuality, conflict, religion, nationalism, new technologies and developments, the environment, human settlement, and migration. "As a large, multilingual subcontinent, India has always relied on images to maintain a cohesive whole across myriad subcultures, regions, castes and languages. The introduction of photomechanical imaging in the nineteenth century enabled the rapid reproduction and dissemination of both spiritual and scientific ideals," states author and editor Sunil Gupta, continuing, "Photography for most of its history was too expensive and technical and was left in the hands of 'experts' - until the birth of digital technologies. The book will address the legacy of the last twenty yea rs, a period when photography and moving image media have been consistently included within critical exhibitions of fine art." INDIA: Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art is edited by Sunil Gupta, Delhi -born artist and curator, and Steven Evans, curator and FotoFest Executive Director, and includes essays from experts on the region and contemporary art.

Sunil Gupta, is an artist, writer, activist and curator. His work has been shown internationally in over 90 solo exhibitions, most recently at Yale University, New Haven, CT (2015). Recent significant group exhibitions include Paris - Delhi - Bombay... at the Pompidou Centre (2011) and Keywords: Art, Culture and Society in 1980s Britain at the Tate Liverpool (2013). Gupta's curatorial efforts were paramount in the monumental exhibition, Where Three Dreams Cross: 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh at The Whitechapel Gallery, London and Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (2010). Gupta's published work includes Delhi: Communities of Belonging, co-authored with Charan Singh (New York: The New Press, 2016); and the monographs Queer: Sunil Gupta (New Delhi: Prestel/Vadehra Art Gallery, 2011); Wish You Were Here: Memories of a Gay Life (New Delhi: Yoda Press, 2008); and Pictures From Here (New York: Chris Boot Ltd., 2003). Sunil Gupta is currently Visiting Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, London and Visiting Professor at UCA, Farnham, UK. His work is included in numerous private and public collections including; George Eastman House (Rochester, NY), Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (Tokyo), Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), Tate Britain (London) and Harvard University (Cambridge, MA). Gupta is represented by sepia EYE, New York; Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto; and Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi. Director of FotoFest International.