Prarthna Singh
India
Prarthna Singh is a photographer whose work explores questions of identity and gender, especially as they intersect with the fraught politics of nationalism in contemporary India. Her images reflect on the economic and political trajectory of the country, drawing connections between feminine precariousness and vulnerability, on one hand, and radical acts of courage on the other. She lives and works in Mumbai, India
Champion
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Champion is a long-term visual research project that studies the intersection of gender and femininity with sports and nation-building, a typically male-dominated space. In India, women face countless acts of violence, with marginalized communities and lower socio-economic classes being disproportionately affected.
Since 2015, I have been documenting government-run sports training camps in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, where young girls train to be boxers and wrestlers, determined to change their destinies. These images of strong and ambitious bodies counter institutionalized patriarchy and hyper-masculinity, offering a powerful representation of femininity outside prescribed norms. Champion is a testament to the athletes' daily labor, aspiration, and capacity to thrive in a society that often denies their bodily autonomy.