After playing host to India’s first science meets art festival, the State’s picturesque capital will once again provide the setting for a public art intervention titled Goa Photo. The inaugural edition of this annual international photography exhibition will take place from February 25 till March 7, 2015 with the aim of showcasing photography from around the world in a democratic non elitist fashion.
Over 180 photographs will be displayed on a stunning scale mounted on special installations and divided into three main clusters in streets, parks and open institutional spaces to facilitate the discovery of photography and Panjim’s architectural heritage.
A curated event, each edition of the festivals will revolve around a specific theme. Frank Kalero founder OjodePez in Barcelona and co founder Punctum
magazine (Delhi) who has also curated three editions of the GetxoPhoto Festival (Bilbao) will be the curator for the first edition of the festival. The theme chosen
is ‘The Other’ where the focus will be on the interpretations of portraiture.
The artists will include 14 international photographers and four Indian photographers. Mexican photographer Alinka Echeverria’s series ‘The Road to Tepeyac
(2010)’ featuring the six million faithful who make the annual pilgrimage to Tepeyac in Mexico City to mark the anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin
of Guadalupe, will adorn the stairs leading to Immaculate Conception Church and serve as the postal image of the festival. Another selected photo essay is Gauri
Gill’s ‘Balika Mela II (2010)’ where she created a photo studio in a tent at a fair for girls in a local town in Rajasthan. She returned seven years later to find many
of the same girls she had photographed earlier. She shot in colour this time. Sebastian Cortes gained access to the veiled Bohra community and captured
the people and the unique architecture of their homes in his photo essay ‘Sidhpur (2014)’.
Alexia Webster created free outdoor
photo studios on street corners around
South Africa inviting people to pose free
of cost. ‘Street Portraits- A South African
Family Album (2011-ongoing)’ will be displayed
at the festival where she will also
experiment with a similar travelling studio
on the streets of Panijm.
Swiss photographer Joel Tettamanti’s
essay ‘Kobo (2013)’ focused on the Basotho
people of Lesotho, South Africa who
under colonial rule switched from wearing
traditional skins and furs to covers manufactured
in Europe.
Sheetal Mallar’s series ‘Dabolim (2014)’
is a photo essay on the workings
of naval officers at otherwise restricted
military facility at Dabolim
Naval base.
A number of workshops, seminars
and presentations by the
participating photographers will
also form part of the festival.
One of the highlights and a first
for Goa will be the Magnum Workshop
Goa where Magnum Photos,
the prestigious photographic cooperative
will partner with Goa
Photo 2015 for a four day program
beginning February 25 to guide
photographers in various aspects
of documentary storytelling. The
second initiative by Magnum Photos
in India, the workshop will
be held at the State Central Library
for selected photographers for a
fee. Scholarships will be offered
to two Indian photographers to
participate for free. A Goan photographer
under the age of 25
will be offered one of the scholarships.
Participants will be guided
by Stuart Franklin -who won the
World Press Photo Award for his
photo of a man defying a tank in
Tiananmen Square -and Richard
Kalvar who has served as president
Magnum Photos.
Goa Photo 2015 is being conceptualised
by Frank Kalero, Ishan
Tankha, Lola Mac Dougall and
Nikhil Padgaonkar, all specialists
in cultural management and photography.
Lola Mac Dougall, director
of the festival who has
served as cultural adviser for the Embassy
of Spain in India says the event will
appeal to people because it is not a
classic photography exhibition with its
focus on Western photographers. A lot
of non European photography will form
part of the festival. “It will be a very unconventional
photography festival where
all art will be displayed on the street,
easily accessible to everyone interesting
in interacting with it.”
The inaugural festival will be simple
she says but will grow and make a name
for itself with each passing edition. “We
want to make this an annual event for
photography and art lovers. Panjim is
one of the most beautiful and walkable
cities in the country that has the potential
to grow into a cultural hub. We want to
build on Panjim heritage with this initiative.”
Review Bureau
