Delhi Photo Festival: Mapping

This series of photographs depicts travels that have been
embarked upon by the photographers. Memory, history, landscape and fluidity of
thought mesh together here, to speak of journeys within and without. 

Journey to Jerusalem of Africa 



Ethiopian faith radiates from two cities – Jerusalem and Lalibela. Lalibela became a holy city after the capture of Jerusalem by Muslims and since pilgrimage to the Holy Land was no longer possible, King Lalibela declared the site as New Jerusalem. Every year thousands of pilgrims make their way to the sacred city of Lalibela by air, bus or foot, to celebrate Christmas. Fascinated by their strong devotion, Gali Tibbon travelled to Ethiopia thrice. The pilgrimage, the faithful worshippers, ancient rituals and ceremonies seemed to illustrate the Old Testament – she was unable to avoid the feeling of being transported to another time, way back.

El Crucero 



This is a photographic series about the day-to-day life in a town called El Crucero in Managua, Nicaragua. These images show El Crucero to be a place that talks to the mysterious and magical landscape; that shows fragments of the untouchable, where the weather imprints mysticism – the sunlight or even the imposing mist that shrouds and makes the light tremble before its presence. These images show a town where nothing seems to happen or one with hidden stories.

Baikal 



Lake Baikal is considered the “Galapagos of Russia” and is the guardian of 20% of the fresh water on the entire planet. The beauty of this place, indeed, does not solely derive from the environment. In this project there are neither images of environmental ruin and desolation nor scenes of industrial violence. There are only insights on that serene harmony that the fusion between nature and mankind has managed to create. The mission of these images is to convey the moral impulses resulting from the strength of the reality, from the power of its vitality, and the greatness of its essence.

Matagi 





“What is faith? Who is God?”

This project is about the rediscovery of tips for these kind of questions through Hajime Kimura’s journey to Matagi, a tribe of the mountainous region, who still lead a traditional and ancient life. With those tips, He has tried to reconstruct the world where we used to live and have forgotten nowadays.

7 Days of Silence 

'7 Days of Silence' is a series of photographs taken in the artist’s birthplace, Vukovar, a small town on the east of the Croatia which was destroyed in the war twenty years ago and renewed after ten years. Before the devastation, Vukovar was small provincial town with beautiful architecture and soul, next to the river, Danube. Vukovar has become a strange mix of ruins of beauty that still lives along with new buildings. There is a silence in every street that you pass and every field that you walk by. Despite everything, there is some form of grace and peace that still lives on.

Change of Course 



The first time Prasiit arrived in Susta, he had to walk from the river across the sandy bank to get to the village. He saw two small huts where people were selling tea and fish; he sat there and talked to them for a while. On his next visit, he did not see the huts. On asking a woman where the huts were, pointing towards the river she calmly replied, “Somewhere there, can’t be sure”. Susta has become a contested portion of Nepal within India, because of the changing course of the Narayani River. This is a poem dedicated to the people of Susta – their sorrow, their grief, their determination, their resistance, their persistence, and their isolation.

21 Grams 



Truc-Anh has been photographing Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, every day for the last three years. He doesn’t try to describe what the city is or how people expect to see it; instead he uses its never-ending messy flow of activities to create a mysterious tableau. Weird, violent and droll just as the ‘new’ Vietnam is.

Khmer Din 



This photographic series was originally in the form of a project for a workshop in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Ronny Sen started exploring the beautiful city of Siem Reap at night on a bicycle he hired for $2 a day. The darkness of the city fascinated him, and resonated with his own disillusion at the time. Rather than display a sequential narrative of facts, Khmer Din is a visual representation of disconnected memories that Ronny wanted to achieve – a flow without narrative; this is more of a silent exploration of the darkness of Siem Reap, than the story of a place.

Dhanushkodi 



Dhanushkodi is a long sliver of land that extends from the southeast corner of Rameshwaram Island in Tamil Nadu. Besides its history and beauty, this ancient land holds for the photographer, a type of resonance that is deep and hard to explain. The certain quality of stillness and austere grace it possesses is compelling.

The River 



The Kingdom of Cambodia has plunged headlong into the throes of tourism and its denizens are still grappling to come to terms with the forces at play. Tourists abound, wreaking havoc on an already fragile ecosystem, vying for space with monks, urchins and addicts. Young teenage girls have taken to prostitution in order to earn for their families, while brothers and close friends help secure clients. Life lurks in shadows there. Little dramas played out in eerie corners under darkening trees. People come and people go, much like the river that quietly flows by.

Immanence 



A few summers ago, I was on an expedition going through a remote mountain pass deep into the heart of a region called Zanskar, a four day trek into the minutest signs of civilisation. Eventually, somewhere along the way, stumbling up the mountains, when the midday sun was burning a hole into my head, it hit me – it really didn't matter, nothing did. Somewhere along the depths of melancholia I discovered a new feeling, like a black hole, which was there but at the same time it wasn’t. I have gone back to the region every year since, and these are some of the people that I met along the way.

I am Georgia 



Georgia is a small country, located at the border of Europe and Asia, on the coast of Black Sea. Georgia is Dina’s favourite topic to shoot but not because she was born and brought up there, but because for her everything is special in this country– people, streets, architecture, traditions… Dina began this story in 2007 and she thinks it will never finish because Georgia is inexhaustible.

Water Stories: The Touch



'Water Stories: The Touch' is a personal alternative way to raise awareness about the global water crisis which is possibly to be one of the world’s most vital environmental issues today. This visual narrative is a way to speak of the human right to have everyday access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. This is a personal journey through the world of the hot mineral springs in the small EU country of Bulgaria and the connection people have with the health-giving water. During the documentation of these intimate and mystical moments, Boryana Katsarova looks for beauty, harmony and romanticism in the correlation between water and human nature.

Hello, Goodbye 



This series of photographs is an ode to memory and change, and how they superimpose on one another. Hello, Goodbye explores the ambivalence Natasha feels towards Bombay of her youth and the Mumbai she sees today. For her, this work has been therapeutic for coming to terms with the idea that what is documented today may disappear or change irrevocably by tomorrow.

Between the Lake and the Sea 



Karlis has always had a deep respect for people who go to sea. In their lives, water has a deeper meaning than relationships with people around them. The sea is larger than anyone – it is more than simply a means of subsistence, more than survival. He returned back to the village where he spent his childhood, looking for the time lost; the time which, it seems, the locals have never forgotten. They still live in that time – slow, quiet and peaceful.