through her eyes
( 2021 - ongoing )
- excerpts
the project ' through her eyes ' initially started as a form of a travel journal, documenting my partner's and my travels across the mountains of the north bengal region. she belongs to the Kirata ethnic community of the hills, identifying as an indian gorkhali, while i am, on the other hand, a born bengali from a brahmin family. now, this socio-political and ethnic distance in our identities creates an interesting position in terms of identity negotiation when it comes to our personal relationship and society at large. the work, on a superficial level, attempts to blur this distance.
post-pandemic, i became increasingly aware of my position in this regard. i decided to engage in an ethnographic style of image-making when we travel together, where I photographed not necessarily my partner but rather more of what she was observing. my partner’s gaze became a window to dig deeper into her community's collective memory and identity, first as a Kirata and then as an indian gorkhali. that way, her agency becomes my agency during the making of the project.
