Asian Studies Events

Archive of Now: Photography in Kashmir 1986-2016

Sanjay Kak Film-maker and Writer

Book Talk and Discussion

About Witness:
Photography in Kashmir has emerged as a powerful witness to its troubled present. Rooted in photojournalism, but escaping its limits when possible, a new generation of photographers has over over three decades illuminated Kashmiri life. Their work has demonstrated the radical part that has been played by photographs in subverting the established views of Kashmir – a beautiful landscape sans people; an innocent paradise; or more recently, of a paradise beset by mindless violence.

As a curated book project, Witness brings together images by nine photographers from Kashmir: Meraj Uddin, Javeed Shah, Dar Yasin, Javed Dar, Altaf Qadri, Sumit Dayal, Showkat Nanda, Syed Shahriyar and Azaan Shah. The text emerged from their conversations with documentary filmmaker Sanjay Kak, and brings out the varied relationships that each contributor has to photography—and to Kashmir—and in the process raises questions about the place of artistic practice in zones of conflict.