NEW DELHI:
Sahapedia, the digital encyclopedia of Indian arts and culture, has extended the date for receipt of entries from photographers till November 30 under its annual Frames Photography Grant, which provides an opportunity to budding and professional lensmen to engage seriously with subjects of culture, history, heritage, environment and arts in India and South Asia.
Funded by IndusInd Bank, the Sahapedia Frames Photography Grant will be awarded to 20 photographers, who are to be shortlisted by well-known photographer and curator Dinesh Khanna, currently working with Sahapedia.org as the chief visual consultant. Khanna, who is the core trustee of Nazar Foundation and a co-founder of the Delhi Photo Festival, will be involved with the selection process in consultation with the editorial and content teams of Sahapedia.
“The Grant has been organised to give emerging and established photographers the space and means to document the diverse anthropological, artistic and cultural landscapes of South Asia. In this age of instant gratification through the mass production of images, Sahapedia intends to adopt a more classical approach to photojournalism by encouraging photographers to engage in ‘slow photography’. Slowing down the process and shooting over a longer duration of time will allow the photographer more intimate engagement with the subject and more investigative depth in their stories,” said Ayan Ghosh, Visual Researcher at Sahapedia.
Some of the specific areas for the entries could be pastoral communities; professions in decline; traditional sports; indigenous musical instruments; food/beverage culture; ritualistic art; pilgrimage routes; and modes of transportation. In particular, it would welcome entries dealing with the geographic regions of Western Himalayas, the North-Eastern states, Central India and the Eastern Coast.
The selected photographers will receive the grant amount of Rs 25,000 besides travel expenses that will be reimbursed separately. They will be required to execute their projects during a period of three months, beginning January 1, 2019. The selection process will conclude by December 25.
The photographic works produced by the grantees will be published on Sahapedia’s website, sahapedia.org, and on associated social media platforms as photo essays. Applicants are required to submit a concept note (not more than 300–500 words) outlining their proposed theme, along with a copy of their resume and a portfolio of their online or published work. All submissions should be sent to frames.grant@sahapedia.org.
The previous edition of the fellowship received applications from over 300 candidates, out of which 25 made it to the final list. Photo essays from the first edition of the grant can be accessed on the Sahapedia website (https://www.sahapedia.org/sahapedia-frames), which include narratives focusing on the fading grandeur of Shekhawati’s havelis, Balti community of Kargil, and the tattooing culture among Madhya Pradesh’s Baiga tribe.
Applications can be downloaded from the website https://www.sahapedia.org/sahapedia-frames-photography-grant-edition-2. Details of the submission process, including eligibility and rules, are available on (https://www.sahapedia.org/sahapedia-frames-photography-grant).
