Spotlight on Nishtha Jain, Chandan Gomes, Vicky Roy and Samudra Kajal Saikia

Nishtha Jain has completed her graduation from Jamia Mass Communication Centre, Delhi and did her specialization in film direction in 1998. 

Through her films, she has explored the theme of self-representation in photography, tackled the issues of dignity of labour and documented women’s struggles for social change. Her work emphasizes her subjective gaze and lingers on the quotidian.

Her films include the critically acclaimed ‘City of Photos’ (2005) which explores the fantasy worlds of street-side photo studios and the much acclaimed ‘Lakshmi and Me’ (2008), which explores the symbiotic roles of mistress and maid, filmmaker and subject, speaker and listener to raise key global issues as diverse as the politics of domesticity, gender and class relations, ethics and documentary. 

Chandan Gomes has done his Bachelors in Philosophy from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. He became the youngest recipient of the prestigious India Habitat Centre Fellowship for Photography in 2011. Photographs from his awarded essay were a part of the Inaugural Delhi Photo Festival. His first photo book is due for release later this year.

Originally from Bengal, a graduate of the Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT), Vicky Roy studied photography at Triveni Kala Sangam. In 2007, he had his first solo exhibition ‘Street Dream’ at India Habitat Centre. In 2008, Ramchander Nath Foundation nominated him for a mentorship program, for which he was selected by the US based Maybach Foundation wherein he photo-documented the reconstruction of the World Trade Center in New York, from March to August 2009. On his return, a solo show titled, ‘WTC: Now’ was held at Bodhi Art, Mumbai.

An artist-writer, Samudra Kajal Saikia working in multidisciplinary fields including performance, theatre, video, animation and public art, is a master of Visual Arts, specialized in art history.  Being a practitioner of multidisciplinary practices of art and theory his artistic interest lies in the problematics of locating the conceptual ‘spectator’.

Having a family background of a theatre practitioners, going through an academic  background of art history in two major institutions like Santiniketan (BFA) and Baroda (MVA) , and working in some other technical/ commercial/ popular idioms like animation, public performances, Samudra owes a diversified experience in the art practice and art writing.