CPB Connect Program - Shillong
Presentations and Portfolio Reviews
CPB Connect Program - Shillong
The CPB Connect Program was established to encourage participation from local communities in different parts of India via an outreach program in collaboration with established practitioners locally.
These one-day sessions across cities in India include presentations by the practitioners, an insight into the submission format of the Awards, and attendees have the opportunity to participate in a portfolio review as well.
In this edition, the outreach program in Shillong, scheduled in November is supported by Emami Art.
Presentations and Portfolio Reviews by
Junisha Khongwir - Visual Artist and Educator
Caldwell Manners - Documentary Photographer
Tarun Bhartiya - Photographer and Filmmaker
Shuchi Kapoor - Co-founder - Chennai Photo Biennale Foundation
Presentations: 11am - 1pm
Portfolio Reviews : 2pm - 4pm
21, November, Tuesday
Venue: St. Anthony's College, Shillong
JUNISHA KHONGWIR
VISUAL ARTIST AND EDUCATOR
Donskobar Junisha Khongwir is a Khasi woman born and brought up in Laitlyngkot, Meghalaya in 1986. She is an educator and a visual artist. Junisha graduated from AJK Jamia Millia Islamia University. She’s an Assistant professor at the Department of Mass Media , St Anthony’s college, Shillong. She is also the curator at The Northeast India AV Archive.
TESTIMONIAL
Lately, my photographic practice has taken a more introspective turn, prompting me to question my identity as a woman within a matrilineal society. I've been exploring my rights, privileges, and the complexities of this journey through self-reflection, as well as the process of learning and unlearning.
CALDWELL MANNERS
DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHER
Caldwell Manners is an independent photographer and activist based in Shillong and wherever his cycle takes him. His documentary work focuses on the issues of civilian response to violence, social activism, and the environment. He is currently working on a personal family history project alongside his curiosity about everyday street life, shapes and light. His work has been published in the Latin American press and various International Organization publications.
TESTIMONIAL
How do photographs speak about us, speak to us, and speak for us? Photography has been a fundamental tool through which I have learned to ask myself better questions about how I interact and live in this world. As an image maker, I have used the camera as a tool of power, a tool to disarm and a tool to generate curiosity - which ultimately has taught me to live as an engaged citizen. My growth in photography has always come in shared spaces, co-learning and community. Please apply for the awards and join us in learning together.
TARUN BHARTIYA
PHOTOGRAPHER AND FILMMAKER
Tarun Bhartiya is a documentary imagemaker, Hindi poet and political activist based in Shillong, Khasi-Jaintia Hills in Northeast India. His photography has been an adjunct to his political preoccupations on themes of everyday life of resistance movements, borders and belonging, destruction of indigenous modes of production and these days, authoritarian religious fundamentalist remaking of the Indian state and society.
Tarun Bhartiya’s films include “Brief Life of Insects” (2015, Mumbai International Film
Festival, Best Sound Award), “The Last Train in Nepal” (2014, BBC4) Royal Television Society Yorkshire award for Best Director, Factual), “When the Hens Crow” (2013), “Darjeeling Himalayan Railway” (2010, Royal Television Society Award, Best documentary series).
As an editor he has worked on notable films with film-makers like Vasudha Joshi (Girl Song, Songlines and Cancer Katha, Special Jury Award, National Awards 2012), “Red Ant Dream” (Editor & Co-Writer, Sanjay Kak, 2014), “Jashn-e-Azadi” (Sanjay Kak 2007) and “In Camera” (Ranjan Palit 2010, National Award for Best Editing). He returned his Indian National Film Award in protest against the Indian government’s inaction against the attacks on minorities in India.
His poems and their translations have appeared in various anthologies including Dancing Earth: Contemporary poetry from North East India (Penguin), Das Baras – Hindi Kavita Ayodhya ke Baad (SAHMAT). He was a founder member of alt-space, an independent cultural and political space in Shillong, and is a member of Thma U Rangli Juki (TUR), a progressive people’s group in Meghalaya.
He is a founder member of Raiot Collective which publishes www.raiot.in
SHUCHI KAPOOR
CO-FOUNDER, CPB FOUNDATION
Shuchi Kapoor is a documentary photojournalist from India and Co-founder of the Chennai Photo Biennale Foundation - a platform that facilitates learning, exhibition-making, and publishing opportunities in the space of photographic arts.
Shuchi works at the intersections of visual storytelling, research and education, deeply curious about regimes of representation and visual cultures. She looks at photography as a medium of inquiry.
QUOTE
Photography has varied purposes in today's lived experience. The CPB Photo Awards were instituted to recognise and award image practitioners who pursue their passions with commitment and purpose. Be it spending time in nature, capturing cities, streets and cultures, looking at conservation practices, or the arduous fieldwork in news reportage, each year, our efforts are to honour and reward the best of these efforts. At the CPB Foundation, we strive to create equal opportunity for everyone to participate through our outreach initiative - the CPB Connect Program, and we invite a jury that observes sensitivity, context and ethics to help select the awardees each year. In that sense, the CPB Photo Awards are not limited to the skill of making the most incredible photographs, but also focus on thoughtfulness and relevance in image making.