Art Asia Pacific Artists Portrait Portfolio by Ram Rahman

Special Features

PHOTO ESSAY With all the black ink spilled in this issue

about the rapid modernization of Asia’s art community, the seminal exhibitions, the

groundbreaking biennials and the evolving critical dialogue, one might wonder what these changes actually looked like. ArtAsiaPacific invited three renowned photographers, Ram Rahman, Xing

Danwen and Lois Conner, to contribute their visual recollections from the past 15 years. New Delhi-based Ram

Rahman shares what he humbly describes as his snapshots from a life lived among India’s generation of leading modernists.

In Beijing, Xing Danwen found herself at the center of a new

generation of Chinese artists, who like herself, were born in

the 1960s with a desire for culture and revolution—but not Mao’s

version. American photographer Lois Conner voyaged to rural China

beginning in the mid-1980s to document the landscape with her largeformat, wedding-banquet camera, and over time she befriended artists and photographed

them in their environs. Together, these portfolios offer a view of India and China at the moment before their grand emergence onto the world stage.

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Collective: A Journey Toward a New India Photography and text by Ram Rahman

Husain Paints A Horse, Delhi, 1994.

My parents, architect Habib Rahman and dancer Indrani Rahman, moved to Delhi from Calcutta in the early 1950s. They were both just beginning their professional careers and were part of the migration to the capital of this newly independent nation. Delhi had become the center of a creative renaissance presided over by prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The spirit of the “Nehruvian Modern,” exemplified by my father’s generation of architects, went hand-in-hand with the nationalistic rediscovery of our classical performing arts traditions, of which my grandmother Ragini and mother Indrani were a crucial part. By the time I was born in 1955, our home had become the center of a vibrant, creative community inspired by the heady collective journey toward a new India.

The artists Satish Gujral and MF Husain were introduced to each other in our home and knew me from my infancy. My sister Sukanya and I were dragged to every exhibition and performance, so for us, the world of the arts was the world. We didn’t know any other!

When I started photographing seriously in the late 1970s after graduating from MIT and Yale, my work moved in a personal, diaristic direction. Philip-Lorca DiCorcia suggested I switch to a compact, medium-format camera, and the Plaubel Makina became my snapshot tool. Most of these pictures were made with that.

Over time, I realized that my snapshots were becoming a record of an ever-changing social reality and I began more consciously documenting those changes happening around me. I was in a rare and privileged position to be on intimate terms with the venerable first generation of moderns such as FN Souza and Tyeb Mehta, as well as a part of the vibrant artistic journey of my contemporaries like Pushpamala and the late, sorely missed Rummana Hussain. This was rare for a photographer, as they were still thought of as a separate breed.

My active involvement in the founding and running of the activistartists collective SAHMAT introduced me to a wide swathe of the arts community in my travels across India. Activism and politics became an integral part of my work. What these pictures capture—both the people and places—are a part of the movement within the art community to stand up against the increasing use of religion in sectarian politics and a strong force in defending the right of free expression.

All images in this article are copyright of Ram Rahman. Courtesy Bodhi Art.

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Arpita Singh, Khajuraho, 1999.

Raghubir Singh, Delhi, 1982.

Bhupen Khakhar, Delhi, 1995.

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Francis Newton Souza, New York, 1998.

Devayani Krishna, Bharti Artists Colony, Delhi, 2000.

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N Pushpamala, Bangalore, 2000

Subodh Gupta, Delhi, 2006

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Judy Reddy, Zarina Hashmi, Apu Reddy, Krishna Reddy, Tyeb and Sakina Mehta, New York, 2005.

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