OH! Design

The history of photography in India presents some unexplored and unexpected gaps. One of the most understudied concepts is that of ‘vernacular’ photography – a term often applied to quotidian images, which in India, given its colonial connotations, has been amended by visual anthropologists such as Christopher Pinney with the term mofussil, or that which lies outside the centre and besides the strictly metropolitan. The colloquial referencing of ‘vernacular’ focuses heavily on that which is ‘native,’ as distinguished from the ‘national.’ Hence, the focus on local, community-oriented, marginalised zones that may represent elided traditions come to the fore as viable parameters within which the term is broadly understood. Ephemeral seeks to broaden the engagement with the term ‘vernacular,’ in both subject and representation, in order to think about how, with overlapping histories today, we can enhance our understanding of a lens culture around the subject.

Photos by: Philippe Calia & Sunil Thakkar/ Courtesy: Serendipity Arts Festival

The history of photography in India presents some unexplored and unexpected gaps. One of the most understudied concepts is that of ‘vernacular’ photography – a term often applied to quotidian images, which in India, given its colonial connotations, has been amended by visual anthropologists such as Christopher Pinney with the term mofussil, or that which lies outside the centre and besides the strictly metropolitan. The colloquial referencing of ‘vernacular’ focuses heavily on that which is ‘native,’ as distinguished from the ‘national.’ Hence, the focus on local, community-oriented, marginalised zones that may represent elided traditions come to the fore as viable parameters within which the term is broadly understood. Ephemeral seeks to broaden the engagement with the term ‘vernacular,’ in both subject and representation, in order to think about how, with overlapping histories today, we can enhance our understanding of a lens culture around the subject.

Photos by: Philippe Calia & Sunil Thakkar / Courtesy: Serendipity Arts Festival

The history of photography in India presents some unexplored and unexpected gaps. One of the most understudied concepts is that of ‘vernacular’ photography – a term often applied to quotidian images, which in India, given its colonial connotations, has been amended by visual anthropologists such as Christopher Pinney with the term mofussil, or that which lies outside the centre and besides the strictly metropolitan. The colloquial referencing of ‘vernacular’ focuses heavily on that which is ‘native,’ as distinguished from the ‘national.’ Hence, the focus on local, community-oriented, marginalised zones that may represent elided traditions come to the fore as viable parameters within which the term is broadly understood. Ephemeral seeks to broaden the engagement with the term ‘vernacular,’ in both subject and representation, in order to think about how, with overlapping histories today, we can enhance our understanding of a lens culture around the subject. Photos by: Philippe Calia & Sunil Thakkar / Courtesy: Serendipity Arts Festival

The history of photography in India presents some unexplored and unexpected gaps. One of the most understudied concepts is that of ‘vernacular’ photography – a term often applied to quotidian images, which in India, given its colonial connotations, has been amended by visual anthropologists such as Christopher Pinney with the term mofussil, or that which lies outside the centre and besides the strictly metropolitan. The colloquial referencing of ‘vernacular’ focuses heavily on that which is ‘native,’ as distinguished from the ‘national.’ Hence, the focus on local, community-oriented, marginalised zones that may represent elided traditions come to the fore as viable parameters within which the term is broadly understood. Ephemeral seeks to broaden the engagement with the term ‘vernacular,’ in both subject and representation, in order to think about how, with overlapping histories today, we can enhance our understanding of a lens culture around the subject. Photos by: Philippe Calia & Sunil Thakkar / Courtesy: Serendipity Arts Festival

The history of photography in India presents some unexplored and unexpected gaps. One of the most understudied concepts is that of ‘vernacular’ photography – a term often applied to quotidian images, which in India, given its colonial connotations, has been amended by visual anthropologists such as Christopher Pinney with the term mofussil, or that which lies outside the centre and besides the strictly metropolitan. The colloquial referencing of ‘vernacular’ focuses heavily on that which is ‘native,’ as distinguished from the ‘national.’ Hence, the focus on local, community-oriented, marginalised zones that may represent elided traditions come to the fore as viable parameters within which the term is broadly understood. Ephemeral seeks to broaden the engagement with the term ‘vernacular,’ in both subject and representation, in order to think about how, with overlapping histories today, we can enhance our understanding of a lens culture around the subject. Photos by: Philippe Calia & Sunil Thakkar / Courtesy: Serendipity Arts Festival

The history of photography in India presents some unexplored and unexpected gaps. One of the most understudied concepts is that of ‘vernacular’ photography – a term often applied to quotidian images, which in India, given its colonial connotations, has been amended by visual anthropologists such as Christopher Pinney with the term mofussil, or that which lies outside the centre and besides the strictly metropolitan. The colloquial referencing of ‘vernacular’ focuses heavily on that which is ‘native,’ as distinguished from the ‘national.’ Hence, the focus on local, community-oriented, marginalised zones that may represent elided traditions come to the fore as viable parameters within which the term is broadly understood. Ephemeral seeks to broaden the engagement with the term ‘vernacular,’ in both subject and representation, in order to think about how, with overlapping histories today, we can enhance our understanding of a lens culture around the subject. Photos by: Philippe Calia & Sunil Thakkar / Courtesy: Serendipity Arts Festival

Curated by François Cheval and Rahaab Allana the exhibition showcased the works of 16 photographers (Anouck Durand, Anshika Verma, Asmita Parelkar, Baptiste Rabichon, Charles Freger, Dhruv Malhotra, François Burgun, Indu Antony, Laetitia d’Aboville, Marion Gronier, Philippe Petremant, Sohrab Hura, Sukanya Ghosh, Thierry Fontaine, Vibha Galhotra and Yannick Cormier) from France and India.

Curated by François Cheval and Rahaab Allana the exhibition showcased the works of 16 photographers (Anouck Durand, Anshika Verma, Asmita Parelkar, Baptiste Rabichon, Charles Freger, Dhruv Malhotra, François Burgun, Indu Antony, Laetitia d’Aboville, Marion Gronier, Philippe Petremant, Sohrab Hura, Sukanya Ghosh, Thierry Fontaine, Vibha Galhotra and Yannick Cormier) from France and India.

Curated by François Cheval and Rahaab Allana the exhibition showcased the works of 16 photographers (Anouck Durand, Anshika Verma, Asmita Parelkar, Baptiste Rabichon, Charles Freger, Dhruv Malhotra, François Burgun, Indu Antony, Laetitia d’Aboville, Marion Gronier, Philippe Petremant, Sohrab Hura, Sukanya Ghosh, Thierry Fontaine, Vibha Galhotra and Yannick Cormier) from France and India.

A tribute to one of the forgotten pioneers of Indian cinema, the cinematographer Josef Wirsching, this exhibition showcased for the very first time, original photographs and digital reprints from the Wirsching Archive. Taken between the 1920s–60s, the photographs provided a glimpse to the aesthetic decisions, creative communities, and cross-cultural exchanges that were vital to filmmaking in late colonial India. The acclaimed production studio, Bombay Talkies, played a major role in defining the form of mainstream film in India, established by Himanshu Rai in 1934. The exhibition foregrounded the critical role German technicians and interwar image-making practices in the history of Indian cinema, presenting some of the best-known actors and technicians from Devika Rani, Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis, to Jairaj, Hansa Wadkar, and Dilip Kumar.

Photographs Courtesy: Serendipity Arts Trust

A tribute to one of the forgotten pioneers of Indian cinema, the cinematographer Josef Wirsching, this exhibition showcased for the very first time, original photographs and digital reprints from the Wirsching Archive. Taken between the 1920s–60s, the photographs provided a glimpse to the aesthetic decisions, creative communities, and cross-cultural exchanges that were vital to filmmaking in late colonial India. The acclaimed production studio, Bombay Talkies, played a major role in defining the form of mainstream film in India, established by Himanshu Rai in 1934. The exhibition foregrounded the critical role German technicians and interwar image-making practices in the history of Indian cinema, presenting some of the best-known actors and technicians from Devika Rani, Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis, to Jairaj, Hansa Wadkar, and Dilip Kumar.

Photographs Courtesy: Serendipity Arts Trust

Fold-out Poster

Leaky Folds conflates the topographical measure of contemporary workplace with our psychological spreads, that of two artists immersed, and waged. Having sought mock-employment in one of India’s biggest software firms, Amitesh Grover and Arnika Ahldag appeared as workers at various locations across the company’s campus - at doorways and in elevators, at fire exits and at secure access points, during night shifts and as shadows of colleagues. They encountered narratives of data secrecy, offshore sites, and recurring crises, as the two learned to perform digital service work. Often, Amitesh and Arnika performed disruptions within the workplace - exercises in abstraction, uselessness, and work-lessness. Notes from this 6-months long immersion are assembled in these leaky folds. Read these perforations as a comment on the spread of digital capital, obsession with logistics and automation, and the messy reality of a post colonial world. Grover|Ahldag reconsider notions of value, leisure, performance, and acceleration, and seek to dither, to un-measure. Their bodies leaked. Their data leaked.

Art Direction & Cover Design

Yesterday’s Films for Tomorrow is a 300 page book commissioned by the Film Heritage Foundation for everyone who loves cinema, and cares about its past and its future. PK Nair (1933-2016), the author was known as India’s ‘Celluloid Man’, and was a passionate film-lover and archivist who dedicated his entire life to saving the country’s cinematic heritage.

Promoted by India’s most respected magazine on politics, art and culture, The Bridge is a digital media platform that looks at the society, law, economy, politics, policy and culture through the lens of women. Through dialogues about policy, politics, society and culture The Bridge hopes to generate synergies, new perspectives and momentum for the road ahead.

The logo represents equality across both sexes with = mark across the colours representing them. The bands weave and interlink the sexes as the principle isn’t independent of the other, like the warp and weft of fabric. Equality is the weft, strengthening and holding the fabric together.

The colour for = is black (reflects no colour) which underlines the need for equality regardless of sex, orientation or colour, or white (which reflects light) and is a presence of all colours in the spectrum.

Launch Pop-up Exhibition & Installation, 2014

Packaging

Art Direction & Cover Design

The experimentation with a light sensitive surface eventually led Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833), inventor of the first photograph – a heliograph – to create a copy-image of a view through his window in Le Gras in 1826. Almost 200 years hence, to usher a festival of photography during Bonjour India 2017-18, this exhibition invoked the birth of an analogue visual form through a process-oriented exhibit, featuring the works of 4 contemporary artists – Uzma Mohsin, Srinivas Kuruganti, Sukanya Ghosh and Edson Dias.

The experimentation with a light sensitive surface eventually led Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833), inventor of the first photograph – a heliograph – to create a copy-image of a view through his window in Le Gras in 1826. Almost 200 years hence, to usher a festival of photography during Bonjour India 2017-18, this exhibition invoked the birth of an analogue visual form through a process-oriented exhibit, featuring the works of 4 contemporary artists – Uzma Mohsin, Srinivas Kuruganti, Sukanya Ghosh and Edson Dias.

Intersection Rug: Illustration

Word mark and Identity Design

Exhibition Design

Exhibition Design

Chase (a collaboration between News Laundry and Scoopwhoop) ventures into the world of Friday protests in Kashmir, where stone pelters clash with the police resulting in a violent display. The film deals with the why, the who, the how of the growing dissent in Kashmir and tries to trace the reasons for the violence which has culminated to its tipping point post the death of Burhan Wani.

The studio did a few illustrations for the film, where a protestor recalls watching a friend lose his life to police bullets, prompting him to become a stone pelter.

Art Direction & Cover Design

Autumn Winter 2009 Catalogue

Autumn Winter 2009 Catalogue

Fold-out poster designed for an exhibition of photographs by Ishan Tankha, at Japan Foundation, New Delhi

Cover Design and Illustration

Illustration

Poster Design

Cover Design & Illustration

Illustration

Autumn Winter 2010 Catalogue

Art Direction

Illustration