Photography
Open Access Photography
“I feel it is collective work, in that it doesn’t belong to any individual”
Priyadarshini Ravichandran, 2023
Surviving Violence commissioned three documentary photographers and multimedia artists to produce a series of images that shift ontologies of domestic violence away from representations of women as battered and bruised victims or images of overbearing and threatening others that sensationalise violence. To do this, the photographers and research teams worked collaboratively to respond to the survivors’ testimonies in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Maharashtra. The result is a series of striking and contrasting works that dialogue with the narratives and themes of survivors’ stories to figuratively complicate the lived realities of experiencing, coping, struggling and surviving in contexts of everyday intimate violence.
Given the deficit of images in public spaces that present complex everyday realities of domestic violence it is important to us that these images are accessible for everyone to use and reproduce through work in the media, non-governmental organisations, government and policy, academia, research and beyond.
In Kolkata 2023 we launched our OPEN ACCESS PHOTO GALLERY. This makes the photos available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 for public use. Scroll down for a sample of the photos by Priyadarshini Ravichandran, Debalina and Vidya Kulkarni and to access the full gallery via the Albums.
We would love to know if you have found the images beneficial for your work or practice: contact here.
Priyadarshini Ravichandran, Tamil Nadu
Priyadarshini Ravichandran is a photographer working closely with recurrent themes emerging in her own life and relationships. She is compelled to tell stories of women, their lives and the land. Poetics and interconnectivity inform her practice. Her process involves meandering, which often leads her to the heart of things. She finds it ambiguous if her work is propelling her life or the other way.
Debalina, West Bengal
Debalina is an award-winning independent filmmaker and cinematographer. Her film ‘Joy Run’ travelled to the 55th Berlin International Film Festival as part of the ‘Shoot Goals! Shoot Movies!’ short film competition of the Berlinale Talent Campus 2005. ‘A Stranger in a Bioscope’ was also a part of the same festival, produced by Sabotage Films, Berlin. She has written, shot, and directed nationally and internationally acclaimed documentary films, short films and has been part of travelogues, music videos, telefilms and mixed genre as cameraperson, director. She is also a still photographer and passionate about issues of gender and sexuality, environment and occasionally writes for newspapers and magazines. Debalina is one of the foremost documentary filmmakers working on gender and queer sexuality issues in India. Her films have been screened in community spaces, national and international film festivals and classrooms all over the world, and made part of curriculum in several universities and institutes. Her film ‘More than a Friend’ is one of the two Indian films to find a mention in ‘Queer Cinema in the World’. In addition, Debalina has worked as a cinematographer for national and international documentary and short films. Recently she jointly received the best cinematographer award for Holy Rights (2020), a documentary film about a Muslim women’s movement in India.
Vidya Kulkarni, Maharashtra
Vidya Kulkarni is a photographer and writer based out of Pune. She likes to use camera as a tool to explore the world around and find meaningful moments from the mundane activities. She strives to capture women and their lives from an empowering gaze. A close associate of the women’s movement, she works as the Documentation Consultant with Civil Society groups and organisations.