Born in 1989, Debsuddha is a documentary photography practitioner from West Bengal, India. Since 2017 he has been practising documentary photography, and the reason behind it is to get involved with the communities, and the collaborators for in-depth understanding and better communication as a photographer. His interest in practice revolves around social and psychological aspects, and he tries to conduct the work through self-connection. Debsuddha believes any form of art possesses the power to impact our psychology deeply, which can reverberate for a long time.
Website: https://debsuddha.com/
Instagram: deb_shuddho
Dear Deb, Thank you for accepting our invitation and sharing your thoughts with us. Dear Readers, our conversation with Debsuddha and his insightful responses are included below.
Could you please provide us with an overview of your practice and the themes on which you are currently or have previously worked?
Hi, I am Debsuddha, a documentary photography practitioner, born in 1989, in West Bengal, India. I have been on this journey since 2017. My interest in practice basically revolves around personal projects based on social and psychological issues, and I try to conduct the work through my connection within the society where I was born and raised. The basic reason behind practising documentary photography is to get involved with the communities, and the collaborators for in-depth understanding and better communication as a photographer.
At present, I am working on the life of my own aunts’ whose life faced social isolation for being born an albino. Being a nephew I have been trying to understand their sisterhood and their journey where psychological loneliness has grabbed a large part throughout their life. Along with that, presently I am involved in another personal project that is about the psychological journey of the relationship between me and my deceased father whom I lost last year in Covid.
What is it you want to express with your photographs, and how do you manage to do that?
In one word, it will be my emotions. To some extent, you can say my self-realisation through my belongings. How I manage is a huge question for me, I can say until and unless I feel connected with the topic I am interested in through my own emotions I try to wait to initiate the work, if it happens in this way or in any way I feel the urge to work out, that’s how I try to manage somehow.
Could you please tell us about Belonging? How did it come together as a project?
Belonging is a body of work that is based on the sisterly companionship of my aunts’ Swati and Gayatri who faced isolation socially and psychologically for being born as an albino. Being a nephew I have been trying to understand their isolated journey, the soliloquy also their dream and hope they still possess deep down in their mind.
Want to add one thing yes, it is a project about themselves, and their sense of belonging in this elderly age but also it is a project where being a nephew I am understanding or trying to express my sense of belonging that is centred by them. My entire childhood which I believe the most sensible, precious time period of any human being that shapes them psychologically like watering, and caring for the seedlings, was surrounded by them. As a kid, it was a space-like sanctuary for me.
It is the project that started under the mentorship of Christopher Morris in 2020, and later on, got enormous guidance from Colin Pantall through the Catalyst mentorship program in Bristol. It is the project for which I waited almost three years because I was not sure about myself and my maturity to initiate the project then. I waited to understand my own position as a photographer and a nephew because the root of the story is based on the vulnerability of my own people who have taken care of my childhood, and my past. I was trying to dig in more about the approach of making this story, that’s why it finally took three years and later on Christopher Morris’ four-month-long mentorship program pushed me and of course the pandemic too because when the first lockdown took place all of us were feeling irritated for being isolated with everyone, locked up in our residence due to the terror of Covid. At that time, it made me feel about the condition of my aunts’ whose entire life has been spent in social as well as psychological isolation, so how they are dealing with this situation because isolation was not new thing to the sisters like us during the lockdown phases, so it has triggered me somehow and started to work on it.
How did you manage to keep your personal emotions separate from the project? What do you think you can do to justify the project as a photographer who is deeply invested in the people you photograph?
For personal projects, yeah sometimes it is hard to control emotions and I just take a pause for a while, no every time it is not possible to keep emotions aside. Later on, I try to channel these emotions through my visuals somehow.
In the context of the second question, I will say I do not think about any justification or something like that, because when it is working on an issue I feel photography can hardly justify or change anything about the person or the community because I do feel photography has limitations and able to tell only a small part of an entire matter at a time.
I am keener on paying gratitude through my visuals to the person who has permitted me to enter their personal space.
We've seen a lot of documentation on the Sundarban, but what do you think would be the best approach to addressing the growing issue of climate change?
I feel it is one of the most important issues of this era and in the context of the approach to addressing the issue like climate change human beings I have to control their consumerist nature and stop believing in ‘development’ by destroying the environment otherwise any art form, protest, politics, activism won’t be able to address in the notion of curbing the prolonged effects of climate change.
What role did your father play in your journey, and could you please share some memories and lessons from your time with him?
In every psychological ways as much as you can imagine. I am sorry presently it is hard for me to write down any memories with my dad. It was as simple as complex, that’s all I can say as of now.
How have the various workshops you've attended shaped your career as a photographer?
Yes, I have attended various workshops and mentorship programmes even at present I am under the VII Mentorship program (2021-2023) where my mentor is Ed Kashi. But I feel a mentorship program is better than short time span workshops because a mentorship program has a long time period and over time mentor and mentee get time to understand each other. I think it helps the mentor to understand the psyche of his/her students as a result a space can be generated to shape any work and the mentee. It has been helping to move forward and grow further.
We frequently hear the phrase "find your voice." How important do you think it is for a photographer to find his or her voice? How did you manage it?
Yes, I do believe in its importance but yes it takes time to find properly, over the night it is not posible to ‘find your voice. I think it comes to us naturally, imposing external force cannot do that. Once my senior said ‘remember Debsuddha this journey is not a T-20 cricket match, it’s like a test cricket, if you don’t have patience no worries you can quit it and it won’t affect PHOTOGRAPHY at all, don’t be in rush, you will find your voice one day,’ he said. I think I am still in the process.
What does Deb do when he is not making photographs?
Do listen to instrumental music and sleep as much as I can, visit my aunts’ residence, else in the evening go for a walk by the side of the river Ganges in north Kolkata.
What is the most important lesson you have learned so far? Do you have any final thoughts for us as students of this craft?
Keep going on, and have faith in yourself. Don't waste your time slandering, gossiping, and belittling others.
Thank you for reading!!
**Disclaimer: Photographs & Content of this interview may not be reproduced in any form without prior permission from the Photographer and astitva. Views, opinions, stories expressed by the photographer are solely his own and astitva will not hold liable for any damage to subsequent to the publication of this content.