Shutters up

Hyderabad's photography festival brings best of work and method under one roof

Hosting the first ever  edition of the Indian Photography Festival (IPF), one would think that Aquin Mathews is having a tough time worrying about logistics, planning and executing everything perfectly.

But Aquin  is calm and collected as he explains why he’s organising the festival. “We saw a great need for a platform in Hyderabad, because even though we have great photographers in the city, nothing like this has ever come up.”

He adds, “We want everybody — public, amateurs and professional photographers — to come together and appreciate and debate the medium of photography.”
Spending over a year travelling the world and using his contacts as a professional photographer, Aquin has brought over 60 showings from more than 80 photographers from across Telangana, the country and the rest of the world to IPF.

“We were fortunate to get a huge space at the State Art Gallery and at all the other venues free of cost,” he says, adding that the event’s cost of '12 lakh also accounts for the free entry for people to view the exhibits and listen to artistes’ talks.

The size of the festival has also surprised its guests, with Russell Hart, former editor at American Photo, who will be speaking at IPF, saying, “I’m frankly impressed at the scale of it. Festivals like these help photographers on a creative and aesthetic level, rather than the practical level.” The Auckland Festival of Photography’s Julia Durkin agrees, adding that festivals like these are a great way to be a part of what’s relevant in the photography world.

“They’re a gathering point for the community, so it helps with international relations, local perspective of global issues,” she says. Indian photographer Aditya Arya, who currently heads the India Photo Archive Foundation, says that the most interesting part of the IPF will be the mobile phone photograph galleries: “The scene has evolved from analog to digital, so it will be interesting for those from our generation to interact with the ‘born digital’. We represent an important and iconic phase of the evolution of photography.”

The 10-day festival, which begins on October 1, will also see workshops called Master Class for professionals who want to up their game, with Indian-born John Isaac, the former chief of the United Nations’ photography unit being one of the tutors.

What does he think of the analog-digital debate? “We have to adapt ourselves as photographers to comply with it,” he says, adding, “Professionals have lost their jobs because of these instant pictures. I feel that the young should adapt to the digital age and not go back to the old ways of photography.”

The collections on display will include John’s Wildlife Series on show at the KBR Park, another series on victims trapped in cross-fire in Los Angeles’ gang violence by LA Times’ Pulitzer Prize winning Barbara Davidson and Ilknur Can’s iPhone Street Photography.