Only In Good Taste

EDITION

2022, Shortlisted

school

National Institute of Design,
Gandhinagar, India

Historically, the Yamuna river has been subject to manifold representations in photography. The formal history has also seen the river as a symbol of settlement - occasionally romanticized into picturesque imagery and built up as a voyeuristic spot. In the latter half of the 20th century, the onset of industrialization on the banks of the Yamuna river, which has also been a drain to untreated sewage and other waste, led to the development of a new gaze that borrows from the social documentary tradition. This gaze’s contribution to the Yamuna river pertains to a unitary identity of the river. Around five years ago, I started making photographs with some seriousness. The medium’s paramount attraction was its unavoidable social referentiality, its way of describing - albeit in enigmatic, misleading, reductive, and often superficial ways - a world of interconnected social references and relationships. 

The water samples collected were taken to a water testing lab, where processes were followed to identify and extract pollutant compounds in the water sample. Some heavy metals like iron, and lead including phosphates and sulfates were found in the collected water samples. These pollutant compounds were separately collected and physically allowed to interact with a photographic negative sheet film. These sheet films were then stored and later translated into darkroom prints using an enlarger.

The work goes into the aspects of verbatim documentary and the objective image-making process. The images made, various contemporary narratives around the river, research data, water samples, and self-portraits together form the work, giving a holistic approach to looking at the river.