Works in ‘Docu tour’ examine the context of photographic documentation

A new show at Mumbai based Gallery BMB, entitled ‘Docu tour’, presents works of four photographers. They examine the use of photographic documentation in the critique of socio-political structures, cultural practices and institutions. Curated by Bose Krishnamachari, it seeks to explore various formal strategies that are employed to transform the photo document into an artwork taking a critical standpoint.

The curator states: “As a curator in today’s new economic context, I am extremely interested in moving forward towards an investigation of different types of art works, which were perhaps rather less prevalent in recent years. In this time of introspection and new beginnings, I find this is the ideal moment to investigate the parameters and diversity of such photographic practice.”

Among the participating artists, Anup Mathew Thomas’s interests are wide-ranging, however his style, direct and detached, applied to subjects ranging from family and friends to Episcopalian bishops in Kerala, a library in Lahore to Dance Bars in Mumbai, contextualizes them in larger narratives.

Gauri Gill is primarily concerned with documenting communities, identities, and the spaces that a community holds dear. Though seeming to employ classic documentary approaches like working within genres such as portraiture and cityscapes, she often breaks these conventions, using a snapshot aesthetic, or making references to local vernacular practices.

Shankar Natarajan brings a conceptual approach to photography. Using archives, various display strategies, and a dispassionate style, the photo artist focuses on themes from everyday life. Sometimes using material produced for a non-art purpose, his work explores the ways photo documents gain new meaning, when re-contextualized within the gallery space.

Last but not the least, Vivek Vilasini’s politically charged works offer a témoignage of geopolitical questions preoccupying society today. His practice seeks to reveal contradictions in socio-political, cultural realms through unexpected juxtapositions of images that often use humor and shock tactics.

‘Docu tour’ is open until August 14, 2010.