The Project formed when I started going through the Indian folders in the NYPL picture collection. The 'Indian' collection focuses on specific states like Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, and the national capital of Delhi. Examining the most travelled locations by people from the west, these states are among the top ten. Hence, I started questioning the idea of what India is in the west and who documented the story of India.
To intervene and disrupt this collection, I collected images from friends from India who live or lived there. I used images from the 'Indian life' and 'India A-Z' collection of NYPL and added my curated collection to show street life in Tamil Nadu, along with captions (which were missing in the NYPL picture collection). I encouraged people to send pictures they shot on their phones as we use the gadget to document our surroundings day-to-day.
Making the Accordion
Final Book
Special Thanks to Shashwath Santosh, Saravanan Balaji, and Yeswanth Chinnathambu for their generous contribution to the image archive.
