Framing Photography

Quoting and “paying homage” to art historian and critic,Geeta Kapur,whose book is titled When Was Modernism in India,Pinney proposes a dismantling of the compartments of high and low art. This,Pinney argues,is happening in a Dadaist fashion,through the democratisation of image-making through Photoshop and phone cameras in small towns across India.

“For me,the categories of high and low art are not watertight,because I’m first an anthropologist and later an art historian. Besides,for me,so-called low art has never been dominated by high modernism,” says Pinney. Though there was intellectual ping-pong between Kapur and Pinney at the seminar,since the former contended that Pinney’s approach,in fact,reinstated these hierarchies rather than dismantling them,Pinney presents an interesting point to take-off from re-looking at images of popular culture dismissed as kitsch.

He humorously narrated an incident about the image of the panchmukhi nag (five-headed snake) where the image had been produced by a group of industrious Photoshop artists at Suhaag Studios in Madhya Pradesh after fervent requests from a devotee at the nearby ashram.

“The snake was seen in the village only once every year at Naga Panchmi but only fleetingly,and had never been photographed before since it was presumably lithe and quick,” says Pinney. Evidently,the advancement in technology had finally made it possible for this “photograph” to be taken.

Before one could take umbrage to the possibility of a European scholar mocking at Indian superstition,Pinney clarified,“These images have been called superstitious by the rational ‘modern’ India and it marks a point of collision between the two Indias.”

These images are,in fact,a response to global angst about the planet and we would do well not to ignore these or dub these as kitsch. These need to be understood as a sign of our times.