Women In Indian Cinema

I am an Indian Photographer, camera maker and an explorer in the field of the historical photographic printing processes.

I have hand printed the photographs in 18th-century photography printing process for a collaborative exhibition “Women in Indian Cinema” which is part of the ongoing The Indo-German Film Week.

It all started with a proposal from my artist friend Allen shaw in Berlin to collaborate on this project. We looked at the women who have been contributing to the male-dominated Indian film Industry as actresses, stuntwomen, music directors, production designers, cinematographers, editors, animators, screenwriters, singers, costume designers, directors to film producers.

I meet, talked and photographed many of these amazing women whereas others shared their photographs which I printed in this old process. I have chosen photographs that are close-ups of these ladies and tried to bring out the character of the person, rather than the profession. The reasons for choosing the Argyrotype technique is the look and feel these prints give, they are very retro looking and these women are creating history and I wanted the imagery that makes them a part of history and the color of memory is always sepia. On the other hand my friend Allen’s Illustrated posters which in their style are reminiscent of hand-painted Indian film posters and Soviet constructivism. His posters are an attempt to bring these amazing ladies in the foreground as the poster girls.

Sharing all the prints as a series and few process photographs at the end.