CPB 4 - THEMATIC NOTE

Photography, invented in the 1820s, has revolutionised, for better or for worse, how we record and remember things. 5 billion photos are taken everyday and more than 14 billion images are shared daily on social media. Photography has become a spontaneous act and a universal language now. In this age of excess image production, the question that begs to be asked and answered not just by photographers and artists, but by anyone, is - why do we photograph? 

The fourth edition of the Chennai Photo Biennale takes its primary inspiration from Dayanita Singh’s ongoing exploration  “#whyphotograph” which unfolds a whole series of inquiries into our relationship with photography.  Emphasising, first on the making of the work, and then, on the form and the presentation of it, Dayanita urges everyone to keep going back to this critical question of our time.

"What is the future of photography if photographers just make photographs?” - Dayanita Singh

Other questions like Who are we photographing for? What is happening to photography, its users, makers, and viewers? What kind of work do we want our pictures to do? How do we move from a photographer-subject relationship to co-authorship? - also emerge from the practices and texts of many of many artists and writers over the years, some who you will encounter below.

“The job of the artist is not to provide answers, but to build the work and their practice to ask the right question.” - Sunil Gupta

In this era of visual saturation, CPB4 brings together slower approaches to image making. The biennale will showcase diverse practices by artists who are reshaping dominant narratives by addressing gaps in representation, remixing colonial visual vocabularies with native avant garde aesthetics, by shifting the gaze from the lone photographer to forge an ethic of care and collective authorship.

“My own endeavour has involved learning to listen more deeply, to get myself out of the way in order to see more clearly, and collectively. While photography is a democratic medium in some respects, as almost everyone today has access to some form of camera, there is disproportionate power in terms of who gets to tell the story. My own small attempt has been to try and cede control of representation, and visualisation. Photography can help us not only broaden monolithic representations, but also to expand the closed and self-referential circles of power and visibility, who gets to be included, and who is excluded. Where and towards whom we direct our attention is an act of love, and belief.” - Gauri Gill

Photography makes history visible, but instead of accepting photography as truth, artists have been questioning the motives underlying the image’s production, thereby altering the very act of looking at photography itself. 

"Photography as an apparatus of power cannot be reduced to any of its components, i.e., a camera, a photographer, a photographed environment, object, person or spectator. It designates an ensemble of diverse actions that contain the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of the photographic image. Like Citizenship, Photography is no one’s property.” - Ariella Azoulay

The biennale has also been consumed by a concurrent question - Who is the biennale for? CPB4 brings together curators, photographers, lens-based artists and audiences from around the world to experience exhibitions and programs set against the backdrop of our city. The Biennale invites the citizens of Chennai - families, commuters, teachers, students and artists to see their hometown anew.

This edition strives to foster a thoughtful, rigorous, and playful understanding of how photography is shaping and changing our lives. How does photography teach all of us to live now?

Why Photograph? is an attempt to bring to you the who (not just the who's who), the what, the where, and the why - and in the process reassess both the strengths and inadequacies of the medium. The texts and images that you will encounter in our exhibitions were not produced for a biennale or for a book. The biennale will not just unveil new photographers or celebrate the history of photographic practices, but explore diverse ways of seeing, thinking, feeling, and presenting.

"I believe our role is to see beyond the world’s blind spots - the invisible corners within oneself and the world around us.” - Jaisingh Nageswaran

We invite you, our audience, to reflect, rethink and respond.

PHASE 1 - Dec 20, 2024
CPB 4 - PRIMARY SHOWS

CPB 4 - INVITED PROJECTS

PHASE 2 - Jan 17, 2025
CPB 4 - PRIMARY SHOWS

CPB 4 - INVITED PROJECTS
CPB 4 PREVIEW GALLERY

CPB 4 PRESS

DOWNLOAD THE PRESS KIT HERE FOR MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE ARTISTS AND SHOWS

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