Behind Country Lines

She has been photographing India for decades and is the face of Indian photography in the global art circuit. Dayanita Singh is among the four non-German artists at the German pavilion. During the opening preview on May 30,she was at the venue,signing copies of her latest book File Room and gifting catalogues and scarves. At the Biennale,she is showing photographs from her 2001 work Mona,which chronicles the life of a eunuch. Singh documented Ahmed’s life over a decade. Living near a New Delhi graveyard,Ahmed dreams of building a marriage hall. Ostracised by other eunuchs,she adopts a child who is taken away. Singh tells this story in a book Myself Mona Ahmed,where photographs are interspersed with Ahmed’s words.