About this episode
The episode discusses Eleanor Sanghara Güstard's essay on South Asian photographers and their use of unreadability as a form of autonomy against colonial clarity.
In today's episode, I'm reading an essay by Eleanor Sanghara Güstard, published in Shade Art Review today. Eleanor inherited an old Nikon F50 from her late father. When the lens cracked, she kept shooting through it. Those "poor images" became a methodology for navigating her position between Britain and India, whiteness and brownness. In her essay, Eleanor traces a lineage of South Asian photographers who use technical strategies, from blur and opacity to degradation, to work against the colonial demand for clarity. From Umrao Singh Sher-Gil's pioneering work from the 1890s through the mid-20th century to Sutapa Biswas and Al-An deSouza's contemporary practice, she shows us how unreadability becomes a site of autonomy. Shade Art Review @shade_podcast @eleanor.sanghara Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
People in this episode
Host: Lou Mensah
Guest: Eleanor Sanghara Güstard
Topics covered
- South Asian photography
- colonialism
- technical strategies in art
- identity
- narrative
- autonomy
Keywords
- South Asian photography
- Eleanor Sanghara Güstard
- colonial demand for clarity
- Nikon F50
- Umrao Singh Sher-Gil
- Sutapa Biswas
- Al-An deSouza
- art methodology
- blur and opacity
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Shade Art Review
Books & works: Nikon F50
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