Soham Gupta

Posted @withregram • @labiennale #BiennaleArte2019 #MayYouLiveInInterestingTimes #SohamGupta @sohamgpt / Arsenale “L’oscurità della notte, per me, è come lo sfondo nero che si potrebbe usare in uno studio.” . Acquista i tuoi biglietti → - link in bio Foto: @jacopo_salvi

Title: ANGST Artist: Soham Gupta Editor: Valentina Abenavoli AKINA, 2018 Softcover, 180 x 260 mm First edition: 300 copies Second edition: 200 copies 168 pages Printed at Mas Matba First dummy made at Photo.Circle === A record of the disadvantaged in Calcutta at night. === [Shortlisted for the Photo-Text Book Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles, France] [Shortlisted for the Paris Photo - Aperture Foundation First Photobook Award] [Selected by Dewi Lewis as Photo-Eye Best Book of 2018] ==== @photobookregistry

Until May 29 @mgksiegen ! After August Sander combines the work of the world-famous yet regionally-based photographer with a contemporary perspective of 13 artists. At the heart of the exhibition is a group of 70 large-format photographs that Sander compiled as late as the early 1960s, also for presentations in the Siegerland. As a gift from Barbara Lambrecht-Schadeberg to mark the MGKSiegen’s 20th birthday, these are now being shown here for the first time. Starting out from this important group of works, the exhibition directs attention towards portraits of people in the 21st century and initiates further examination of images showing contemporary types. The artistic positions exhibited revitalise the work of August Sander both directly and indirectly. The deliberate leap in time of about 100 years visualises our changed views of life and new influences on the individual. Despite the historical reference, “After August Sander” does not stick exclusively to the medium of photography, but presents video installations and sculptures in a reflection of our times. With contributions by August Sander Mohamed Bourouissa @mohamedbourouissa Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys @josdegruyterandharaldthys Hans Eijkelboom Omer Fast Soham Gupta @sohamgpt Sharon Hayes @purpleshazey Bouchra Khalili Ilya Lipkin @ilya_lipkin Sandra Schäfer @mazefilm Collier Schorr @collierschorrstudio Tobias Zielony @tobiaszielony Artur Żmijewski

On a full moon night, a crow.

Like every Indian photographer beginning his journey, I had been a diehard fan of Raghu Rai. His images - like those of Don McCullin -gave me tremendous inspiration at a time when photo-knowledge was not so easily available, when the internet was slow - when you had to rely on magazines from the secondhand stalls in order to see images. Also, once in a while, you could chance upon a copy of an old Raghu Rai book somewhere and it’d make the schoolboy I was calculate if enough money could be pooled to buy the book. Also, I remember spending hours at Starmark Bookstore scanning every photobook I could find. In 2009, I had my first exhibition- and I happened to sell a print. With that money, I bought this photobook on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy and its aftermath, published by Greenpeace. I still think that this book is one of the most hard-hitting Raghu Rai books ever. Rai Sa’ab was not my guru. He was a constant presence in my early photography practice. A hero who led me to other heroes - at Magnum, at Tasveer. Who opened up a world for me. Rest in peace.

INVISIBLE PEOPLE A montage I made in 2009-10 on homeless, emotionally ill people living and rotting on the streets of Calcutta. Data from that time: It is estimated that there are over 400,000 homeless mentally ill people in India, and among them, over 90% are diagnosable and treatable.

These images were all made around 2006-07. I was struggling with depression. Many doors were closing and I seemed to be swallowed by a strange darkness, a bitterness for the world where very few cared. And then, the sight of so many homeless people with emotional illness and disability was haunting me. I knew not what to do. Relationships were crumbling. All at that time I had was my camera and a few rolls of film. And my family. And so I photographed those with whom I empathised. All prints by the darkroom hero Mr. Bose. This work - and what followed for the next few years would lead to my series Angst.

Sharing twenty images with you from my recent work. When I was working on my series Eden, it dealt amongst other things with the crumbling colonial architecture. In this new work, I am working mostly on the post-independence era modern and the recent post-modern skyscrapers. Within these buildings, lurking in every corner of every room, there are infinite stories of countless people. This work tries to imagine some of these stories.

Of old heroes in late capitalism

Autopsy of a City - excerpt from an ongoing series twenty images

One of the first images I made using my beloved Nikon F80. It was 2006. Final exam season. I had absolutely no interest in my studies - mathematics, statistics, business economics were killing my soul. One morning, I went out, loaded film and started making images with this new camera. When I received the contact sheet from Mr. Bose, for the first time, it felt magical.

By the end of 2007, I started skipping classes at the university and would spend a lot of time taking photos with my Nikon F80. I was nineteen - I’d be on the streets all day - and would often slip into old, rundown cinema halls which showed soft porn. In December that year, I was given the responsibility to photograph behind-the-scenes of a theatre company - and because of that assignment, I was given three rolls of Kodak Tri-X 400. I spent two rolls shooting the theatre company, while the third, I reserved for shooting the porn halls I frequented. Posting two images from this roll - one, shot at Regal, the other, at Bhabani.