Sharing a highlight of the year~
✨Har Shaam Shaheen Bagh ✨and our exhibition catalogue for ✨2024: Notes from a Generation✨now have a home at the Tate Library and Archive. Both these bodies of work were made with the intention to resist erasure by holding on to individual truths and building citizen archives.
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From tender drawings made by the children who sat at the make-shift crèche during the Shaheen Bagh protest, to the first-time-voting youth of India, revealing their desires and dejections in quiet, yet brave ways. Making this work reinforced, that listening with intention and without judgement is the need of the hour. The personal has never been more political.
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When I visited the archive earlier this year, I was lucky enough to have a quick tour, where I came across an exhibition catalogue for a National Gallery of Modern Art group show, that opened in Delhi ,the year of my birth. Being able to witness today, what artists were fearing, feeling and addressing then, brought me such joy!
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For anyone who wishes to see the book+the catalogue, the archive remains open Monday-Thursday. To access them, you can ask for them at the front desk. A BIG thank you to @vasundhara.m and Gustavo for making all the connections and for believing in my work 🥺
Vinesh you are a champion. If your triumphs belong to us, so does your heartbreak. The burden of carrying your struggles should never belong to you alone. It has been an absolute privilege witnessing your powerful journey. From the first time we met and made photos nearly a decade ago, in 2015, to last year in May, in a more solemn moment, when you lay in protest. You are my hero. Your story is going down in history and no one can change that!
Did a fashion story after years! Felt right to return to this world with @dior who I’ve built a long-standing work relationship with over the past few years while documenting the making-of their collections at @chanakya.school in Bombay.
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When @mariagraziachiuri reached out to collaborate on this project that involved me and six other amazing women, I was thrilled to jump onboard. Photographed in Jaipur (a city I now call home, my father’s homeland is Rajasthan) in January of this year. So happy that two images from my portfolio made it to covers. One for Dior Magazine and the other for Icon Germany @icon.magazin .
Dedicating this to my pink city fam. 💞🌸💖
Thank you to the entire @dior team and to all the wonderful people who worked on this project.
The added joy of photographing objects is that there are no humans to direct! All these incredible pieces are designed and handcrafted in Jaipur by my brilliant friend and his kaarigars @livio.delesgues
So glad the world gets to witness his brilliance at @alcova.milano this year.
If my artistic journey is adorned with photographs of women I hold in deep admiration, I’ll consider that my true measure of success.
This January I had the pleasure of photographing the legendary Brigitte Singh. It was so magical to watch her walkthrough her garden-filled with abundant poppies, fresh lettuce, flowers and bees! So lucky to witness where her inspiration comes from and to then see how nature in all its bounty finds its way into her inimitable block prints.
Brigitte moved to India as a young student in the 1980’s to study miniature painting and over the course of the next few decades she dedicated her life to craft , building an extraordinary creative empire.
For anyone unfamiliar with her work (though honestly who is!) this is an invitation to do a deep dive. And as she begins to wind down her workshop this year, it feels like the right moment to bring at least one Brigitte Singh print into your home.
Made with my creative partner-in-crime @ecruonline
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No AI involved in the making of this imagery.
Just old school ways, human hands and labour-of-love creations by my wonderfully talented friends.
In December 2019, a New Delhi neighbourhood Shaheen Bagh became a flashpoint for a muslim women-led protest against police brutality, xenophobic citizenship laws, and unconstitutional advances against minorities.
Prarthna Singh’s field recordings alongside with site-specific works from other collaborators will be presented during this radio show. It is a culmination of songs sung in unison, conversations, and murmurs from Shaheen Bagh’s poems and songs of love, revolution, and solidarity.
This compilation stands as a revolutionary ode: an offering of harmony that reminds us of the communities we once nurtured and spaces that fostered dignity, mutual care, and responsibility toward one another. In listening, we are invited not only to remember but to reimagine solidarity itself as something we can still hear, still feel, and still build together.
Mumbai-based visual artist Prarthna Singh, widely recognised for her still-image portraiture, traces her photographic language back to her formative years with analogue photography, taking shape in the darkroom alongside the tactile rituals of printing that shaped her way of ‘seeing’.
With editorial and commercial work that spans a global roster, Prarthna’s practice remains rooted in documenting women and communities on the frontlines, taking shape in projects such as Har Shaam Shaheen Bagh, her self-published book chronicling the women who led the anti–CAA–NRC movement as well as a series on female wrestlers and boxers, recently exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Even as Prarthna’s work engages directly with India’s pressing socio-political landscape, she holds an equally assured presence on the global commercial stage. From Nike and Uniqlo campaigns to documenting Dior’s collaborations with the Chanakya School of Craft, her practice demonstrates a rare duality — an artist grounded in the urgency of her context while shaping a distinctly contemporary, globally resonant Indian voice.
✨Jaipur Deco✨ is a limited edition of 50 handcrafted boxes, each containing six archival prints of Jaipur’s iconic Art Deco theatres.
Inspired by the city’s long-standing tradition of jewellery making, the box design echoes vintage jewellery cases-with a ruby red velvet lining and a museum glass front that eliminates reflections. The frame functions both like a coffee table book (flat-lay style) as well as a wall-mounted piece of art, using the hooks provided at the back. You can swap out the prints to display your favourite one.
The first time I photographed an Art Deco theatre in Jaipur was in 2015, while we were working on our book Sār: The Essence of Indian Design. It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade since that journey. In the years that followed, I found myself returning often to marvel at their ornate, cavernous, dreamlike interiors—with flowing lighting alcoves and extravagant detailing, blending Deco and mid-century elements with Rajputana and Indo-Saracenic influences.
Featured in the latest @archdigestindia Art Deco issue, Jaipur Deco has been handcrafted with a lot of love. We still have a few pieces available at @thepalaceatelier store. Link in bio to purchase.
Thanks @gauravikumari@clairederoo for being the perfect partners in creating 🌸
