In the tight circles of art photography and photojournalism, Dayanita Singh has the serious whiff of legend. Born and raised in India, she earned her stripes from the International Center of Photography in New York City, has shown the world over (including at the Tate Modern) and in 2008 earned herself a Prince Claus Award (the Dutch government prize given for "artistic and intellectual quality"). The recent publication of Dayanita Singh adds elegantly to her emerging canon.
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Ghostly Poetry in Huis Marscille - An Interview with Dayanita Singh
Do you recognize the feeling of photograph totally sucking you into its atmosphere? Well, Dayanita Singh‘s work manages to do that to us. Her photographs often have a meticulous use of light and visual construction, with a touch of poetry. They make you drift into the world that she creates in her mind. The beautiful museum for photography Huis Marseille has organized an exposition around the collected work of Dayanita Singh, and we had the opportunity to interview her while she was visiting Amsterdam
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Dayanita Singh is clearly one of the most significant photographers of our times. This elegant retrospective book was long overdue and yet seems early, considering there is so much more to look forward to from her. Singh, whose journey started with a tumble in front of the musician, Zakir Hussain (the introduction talks about many such ‘knocks’ that would shape her as a photographer), has an astounding body of work in the little over two decades of her career.
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One of the eleven ‘adventures’ in Italo Calvino’s Difficult Loves is that of a photographer. This is a man who realizes very quickly that what lurks in his “black instrument” is nothing but a kind of madness. And this madness is a forking path. One path beckons outwards, towards the doomed and impossible desire to document everything that exists and happens before it is lost forever.
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"The first sentence of every novel should be: Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human. Meander if you want to get to town."
Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion."
When I arrive at the Frith Street Gallery, London to interview Dayanita Singh, I'm drenched. It's been raining and Singh looks for a towel so that I can dry my hair and "don't catch a cold". This thoughtfulness, in every sense of the word, is one which I find extends to Singh's entire being, whether it is talking about her new work Dream Villa, the inspiration she draws from other creative forms and her demeanour.
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"Dayanita Singh, India's most celebrated art photographer, is reputed to maintain a precarious
relationship with her viewers. But her aesthetic risks are notable for raising questions other Indian
artists of her generation barely recognize..."
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"There is nothing at all, except the title, to help the viewer along in Dayanita Singh's new book of photographs, Go Away Closer (Steidl, 2007). Accompanying exhibitions in Delhi, Varanasi and Mumbai, this is a slim, featherweight volume, which looks rather like a medium-sized exercise
book one might pick up from an exclusive, but no-frills stationer..."
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Seven little books in a small white box. Each book is about 9x13 cm, and has a blank, dust-coloured cover. Six of them bear just the name of a place on their slim spines — Calcutta, Bombay, Varanasi, Allahabad, Devigarh and Padmanabhapuram — with no volume-numbers to indicate any kind of sequence.
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Dayanita Singh’s Ladies of Calcutta (Bose Pacia, until February 9), in spite of the affectionate drollery of its title, is an exacting exhibition. It is mounted profusely and precisely. There are eight large photographs, hung as two triptychs and a diptych, and more than a hundred smaller prints on three white walls, from almost floor-level to a little above eye-level.
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"The air is thick with adolescent rebellion. A schoolgirl buries her head in a pillow performing a familiar scene of seeking attention while refusing it. Her crossed legs extend enticingly toward us; her shoes move petulantly away from us. These gestures simultaneously shout 'go away' and whimper 'come closer'..."
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There is nothing at all, except the title, to help the viewer along in Dayanita Singh’s new book of photographs, Go Away Closer (Steidl, 2007). Accompanying exhibitions in Delhi, Varanasi and Mumbai, this is a slim, featherweight volume, which looks rather like a medium-sized exercise book one might pick up from an exclusive, but no-frills stationer. It simply contains 31 black-and-white
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