Photo Shop

As photographers struggle to find exhibition space,a few are moving outdoors. This year,a photo-art gallery sprang up at a run-down mill in Byculla,Mumbai,an outdoor photo exhibition was held in Bengaluru,another at an old cottage in Goa while in Guwahati,a group displayed prints inside a ferry.

“We started with the online gallery,called BlindBoys. Within six months,we got bored and wanted to walk out and engage audiences,” says Mahajan. Blow Up Bombay was preceded by a Blow Up in Bengaluru,displaying 100 pictures. In Mumbai,the number escalated to 1,000. “We started this not as a protest against galleries,but to take our work to a new audience — a daily labourer,a paanwallah,people who wouldn’t walk into an art gallery,” says Mahajan.

In July,a run-down mill in Byculla became a photo-art gallery. Wine and champagne flowed freely as art lovers walked in to ‘The No Man’s Art Gallery’. This online,affordable,art gallery has new location across the globe every three months to provide young and talented artists an opportunity to showcase. Its curator,Emmelie Koster,said she chose Mumbai to cater to the change that photography was witnessing. “The pop-up gallery always has a festive opening night,the address of which is only revealed to those who ‘RSVP’. The keyword is accessibility. The secrecy of the address gives the event an exclusive feel,” she says. In Mumbai,the response was fantastic. “It seemed to me that people were craving for a different kind of art exhibition and ‘The No Man’s Art Gallery’ came at the right time,” she says.

Bengaluru-based photographer Mahesh Bhat feels these initiatives are a great way to speak to the masses. “I want to engage a push-cart vegetable seller. What do I do? An art gallery will obviously find only one kind of audience. Here,the deal is to converse with the man on the street. It’s not about selling your work,it’s about striking a chord through your work,” he says. This concept encourages dialogues amongst different kinds of photographers. “Which is very important considering the way the medium is changing,” Bhat says.

In Bengaluru,the first Open Show was held in July,where the audience could walk in and interact with photographers. This San Francisco-based show was brought to India by Madhavi Reddy. On her blog,Reddy writes: “Photographers in India are at a point where they want to share the stories they are working on.” Several editions of the Open Show have since been held in Bengaluru.