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- Privacy
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What can a photographer in India capture on film other than disasters or the exotic? Dayanita Singh was preoccupied by this question after she had spent many years documenting the poverty in her homeland. Her answer was a return to the world from which she came, to India’s extended, well-to-do families and their fine homes. Both on commission and on her own, she photographed friends and friends of friends, creating a portrait of another society, complete with its traditional and post-colonial symbols of prosperity.
The self-confident elite of the country is nearly unknown in the West. Privacy provides great insight into a closed world characterized by tight family solidarity. Singh shows the people as they would like to see themselves, in the middle of splendidly decorated rooms and surrounded by possessions that represent their self-image. At a certain point in her work Singh realized that even without their residents, the rooms were occupied by the invisible generations that had lived there before. The book closes with photographs of interiors, empty but still filled with spirits.
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- Sent a Letter
- Dayanita Singh has been making small photo journals of her travels in India for some years now. Each book is made with a certain person in mind, either one she has made the journey with or one that was on her mind on her travels. She makes two handmade copies, one remains with her (she calls this her kitchen museum) and the other with the friend it was made for. A diary with coded images of a time shared. SENT A LETTER contains 7 of these diaries including one of Nony Singh’s photographs of her daughter growing up. The diaries are in accordion folds and open into a mini private exhibition in her friends’ homes. They are presented in a handmade cloth box.
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- The Home and the World
- This book accompanies a travelling exhibition of the work of two well-known Indian photographers, Raghubir Singh and Dayanita Singh. Curated by the art historian and critic, Deepak Ananth, the exhibition has been organised in collaboration with Hermès, Paris.
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- Blue Book
- Blue Book is a series of images made during Dayanita Singh’s wanderings in the industrial landscapes of India. Presented by Dreamvilla Productions, India (an alias and nom de plume designed to mask Singh’s authorship), the book will be displayed in galleries and museums as a work of art.
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- Schmatz! [∫mats!]* - Lunches at Steidl created by Rüdiger Schellong
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“Schmatz \shmäts\ 1: smacking one’s lips in anticipation of good food; 2: eating noisily; 3: big sloppy air kisses”
An innovative art book that includes recipes, a cookbook that includes art, Schmatz! speaks to the creative practices of publishing and cookery as experienced at Steidlville. Renowned artists from around the world travel to little Göttingen, Germany to collaborate with celebrated publisher and printer, Gerhard Steidl, creating outstanding books of exceptional quality. Personally involved in every stage of their book’s creation, artists make the rounds from image processing, colour proofing, to design, paper choice, and finally to press. While there is a great amount of satisfaction in the process, it is rigorous and highly demanding. The one hour when guests are allowed to slow down is lunchtime at Steidl’s table, enjoying the simple yet spectacularly delicious, lovingly prepared and served meals by chef Rüdiger Schellong.
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