Habitat

10 September 2014

Devansh Jhaveri, From the series Hollywood

In a time of massive globalisation and instant information, how do we define what is our ‘natural’ environment? How do we ensure long-term benefits through sustainability, from the environmental and from a cultural point of view? The term ‘Habitat’ can be further expanded into notions of identity, migration, assimilation and environment. This theme comes at a time of grave ecological concern and retrospection around the world, looking at the larger global picture of natural as well and man made disasters. At a time when the global population is ever increasing, how do people adapt to a scarcity of resources?

EDITORIAL

The Sanity of Habitation

Kaiwan Mehta, Guest Writer

The ‘home’ terrain The ‘home’ is a siting for human habitation. The ‘home’ is often seen as the safe inside in a landscape that is public, urban, and in may ways unprotected; however the tropes by which we reproduce the imagination, at times the illusion of home, even if imaginary...

Photography’s Continent

Rahaab Allana, Editor

A documentary film by Nishtha Jain titled Calcutta: City of Photos (2005) depicts a haunting sequence: a photograph of the famine-stricken people of Madras in 1876-78, taken by W.W.Hooper (1837-1912) is digitally morphed in-front of a modern-day painted backdrop. For me, this sequence affirms a...

Photograph(er)s’ Habitat

Philippe Calia

I recently rediscovered the classic book, Camera Indica, in which I found an expression that, surprisingly, resonated with the current thematic of PIX. In the very first lines, visual anthropologist Christopher Pinney charts his endeavour as an attempt to fathom the ‘complex changing ecology of...

Where the Wild Things Aren’t

Tanvi Mishra

In Singrauli, the air hangs thick with fumes of sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide and other chemicals. Chimneys dotting the landscape spew dark grey smoke and the surrounding hills wear a barren look. The Singrauli region, on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh is prominent on the...