Rohit Saha (born 1990, India) is a visual artist from Calcutta. His practice involves photography, illustration, and animation to narrate stories. He has been working with communities, landscapes, and socio-political phenomena in various parts of India.
Saha’s graduation project about extra-judicial killings in Manipur titled “1528” won the Alkazi Photobook Award in 2017. Saha was awarded the Magnum Foundation Social Justice Fellowship in 2018 and was a part of the Joop Swart Masterclass 2020. Saha is currently based in Bombay, India.
website: http://rohitsaha.com/
instagram: iRohitsaha
Dear Rohit, Thank you for accepting our invitation and sharing your thoughts with us. Dear Readers, our conversation with Rohit 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?
My practice involves mixing different mediums such as photography, illustration, videography, animation and sound, to create an experience. I have been working on both personal and socio-political themes dealing with phenomena among various landscapes and communities in India.
What do you hope to communicate through your images, and how do you plan to do so?
With my work, I try to make my audience feel what I experience learning about the socio-political issues of my country. And in order to do so, I merge different mediums to create that experience.
1528 a book (Manipur work), could you please walk us through your process of documenting stories and culminating them in a book?
1528 began as a part of my degree project whilst I was studying at NID. It was in 2016 when I first got to know about (the activist and poet) Irom Sharmila through an article I read in the newspaper. It said, “Irom Sharmila breaks her 16-year-long fasting to repeal AFSPA.” She had been fasting in protest against the killings that happened on 2nd November 2000 also known as Malom Massacre. Till then I had no idea who she was and in order to educate myself I began this work. Before reaching Manipur I had plans of just documenting Irom Sharmila and her journey to the election along with photographing the village of Malom because I thought that the Malom Massacre was the worst that had happened. Soon after reaching Manipur, I was introduced to EEVFAM (Extrajudicial Execution Victim Families Association of Manipur).
This organization formed by the mothers’ and the wives’ of the victims’ filed complaints against the Armed forces. In their office, I came across “A cupboard” which contained files documenting 1528 extrajudicial killings carried out by the Indian Armed Forces between 1979 - 2012 and this changed everything. My work shifted from just talking about Irom Sharmila to what are known as 'Fake Encounters' and the events of the past 33 years. My daily routine was to reach EEVFAM’s office at 9 am and go through the various data collection forms and piles of photocopied documents submitted by the victim's families. The text stating the last sightings was what stayed with me. I would also make notes of the places these abductions and killings would take place and in the evening I would ask my friends to take me to those places. It was like I was in a trance. I reacted to the surroundings and photographed it. The shock I received by not being aware of what is happening in my own country compelled me to make this book so that my audience might feel what I felt when I opened the cupboard and also my practice, which consisted of handling the various folders, newspapers and other documents.
We detect the visual mystery in your images; is this a deliberate effort?
There is this search for the invisible or the past in all my works. May it be 1528 which talks about the fake encounters, or my project, A Field Guide to a Contaminated Wonderland which talks about mercury contamination in Kodaikanal, where the contamination is all invisible. Even in one of my personal works which is called “Because I Believe” I am in search of UAPs/ UFOs. Again, something to do with things which just can’t be seen. So I think my practice lies in exploring this search and I use photography and other mediums to create this experience for my audience.
Which format, in your opinion, conveys the best meaning of work – multimedia or still photography?
It can be multimedia or it can just be still photographs. It pretty much depends on the project I would say.
How do you see the role of photo books and prints in the face of growing digital formats?
Books and Prints will always be valued. Because we can touch and feel and hold a book/print. Digital kills the idea of Touch (AT LEAST IN the year 2022, so far I am not aware if we can touch and hold in VR). But then Digital is also bringing in new forms of how a work can be experienced (AR/VR). So I guess each has its own importance of how something can be experienced. I think the roles will adapt and new forms will be born.
What does Rohit do when he is not making photographs?
Experimenting and making mistakes using different mediums. And overthinking. And freelancing. I draw and write. Buy plants and walk and yeah, that’s about it.
What is the most important lesson you have learned so far? Do you have any final thoughts for us as students of this craft?
We are all students, there is no end to learning. Experiment and make mistakes and you will find yourself.
Thank you for reading!!
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