To mark the exhibition Vasantha Yogananthan: AMMA currently on display at The Photographers’ Gallery Print Sales, hear the artist give insight into the final chapter of an ambitious long term project that began in 2013. Straddling the myth, folklore and everyday imagery of Indian life, AMMA is a modern day retelling of the legendary princess Sita and takes us on a journey from the seacoast of Sri Lanka, to the city of Ayodhya to the jungle of Bihar, India.

Yogananthan works across both colour photography and black and white photographs, later hand colouring them with acrylic gouache and ink. Together with Victoria and Albert Museum curators Hana Kaluznick and Divia Patel, we will look at his process and the stories that continue to inspire him.

Details on how to access the talk will be confirmed upon registration. Please check your junk folders if you haven't received an email from TPG staff confirming your place. 

Biographies

Hana Kaluznick is Assistant Curator in the Department of Photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). She is currently working on the launch and inaugural displays for Phase 2 of the V&A’s Photography Centre, opening autumn 2022. She has contributed to displays including: Known and Strange: 15 Photographers from the Collection (V&A, forthcoming summer 2021), Valérie Belin / Reflection (V&A, 2019), and Kodak Canada: The Early Years 1899-1939 (Ryerson Image Centre, 2018), among others. Recent publications include texts in Photographic Canadiana and the Royal Photographic Society journals. She gained her MA in Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, Toronto.

Divia Patel is Senior Curator in the Asian Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). She specializes in contemporary art, craft and design, popular culture and photography from South Asia. She has curated several exhibitions for the V&A including The Fabric of India (co-curated 2015-2016), The Photographers’ Pilgrimage: Exploring Buddhist Sites (2009), Cinema India: The Art of Bollywood (2002 - 2007), and Indian Life and Landscape (co-curated 2009-10). She has published on all these subject areas including articles on 19th century photography in India. Her focus on contemporary South Asia has led to significant acquisitions in this field for the V&A’s collections.

Vasantha Yogananthan's (b. 1985, France) practice addresses the space between documentary and fiction. Working solely in analogue, his photographic projects are developed over long periods of time and over the years he has developed a distinctive colour palette solely based on natural light. He has received several awards, including FOAM Talent (2017) and an ICP Infinity Award for Emerging Photographer of the Year (2017). Yogananthan is the fifth laureate of Immersion (2019) and is set to undertake a residency in the United States in 2020, prior to a solo show at SFMOMA in 2021 and at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris in autumn 2021.

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