Mumbai’s eastern waterfront will inspire local photographers to develop new ways of seeing, reports Rachel Lopez.
As part of “The World as One”, the Goethe Institute’s travelling exhibition of German photography after 1989, the Max Mueller Bhavan has organised a workshop for local photographers, that will focus on Mumbai’s eastern waterfront. The workshop will be led by Kai-Olaf Hesse, who has headed similar projects around the world. His images of the industrial town Dessau are part of the exhibition and the workshop will culminate in a presentation on August 10. Hesse told Time Out about his plans for the workshop.
What made you focus on the eastern waterfront?
The idea came up when the Goethe Institute asked me to run a workshop associated with the exhibition “The World as One” in Mumbai. [The director] Marla Stukenberg suggested the waterfront as being a significant part of the city, undergoing major redevelopment and reclamation. As a landscape with historic significance and much potential for Mumbai’s future, it represents a typical urban phenomenon for re-interpreting city spaces in times of globalisation. That’s why it becomes, or should become, a focus of public debate and identification.
In my experiences of photographing other cities, the most interesting aspect for me was always to learn about the different ways of seeing and share the various culturally imprinted ideas and visual language of the area. Apart from the pleasure of looking at and discussing good photographic projects, it was always rewarding to work with photographers around the globe and exchange ideas, visions, and share the fun of creating new work. It is these motivations, besides my personal curiosity of getting to know the eastern waterfront and the city of Mumbai, that make me look forward to the workshop.
Do you find any similarities in the landscape of Dessau, which you photographed for the exhibition, and Mumbai’s eastern coast?
I guess there are a lot of structural resemblances. I also expect similarities in the general situation of change, redevelopment, or reclamation which occurs in many post-industrial cityscapes. You see a lot of reusable space and structures, heritage buildings, seemingly underused infrastructure, warehouses and at times even contaminated wastelands. One of the possible clues to reading
those areas is to look at their potential for the future rather than to view them as “waste” lands. Those areas share a fantastic possibility for something new, for a re-definition and reclamation by the people. [There are] new perspectives and at the same time the histories of those areas remain a defining part of their identities.
What does the workshop aim to achieve?
The major goal for participants would be to learn to read the visual texts of the area, its history, present and possible future, with their own critical eyes. They should be able to then envision, create and present a coherent, visually convincing and content-oriented photographic series or project focussing on one or more issues raised by the waterfront situation.
Although my own photographic background is landscape- and topography-based, I leave it open to the photographers to find their own way of reading the area and find their own language, genre and style. Given this area as a defining frame for the workshop, each participant will be encouraged to find his or her own theme at the waterfronts.
What issues do you keep in mind when you work with local photographers?
Working with photographers with different cultural and visual backgrounds always fascinates me because their ways of interpreting the world is different from my own. In the best of cases these different ways of seeing, or reading the urban environment in this case, can produce a very intense visual discussion about a topic. Incorporating ideas and visual languages from abroad can lead to new interpretations, strategies and visual concepts to explore and communicate local issues.
But with photographer’s websites now becoming easily accessible across the globe, it has become even more important to nurture local styles, visions, and photographic expressions rather than copying “international styles”.
Call Max Mueller Bhavan on 2202-7542 or 2202-7710 for details of the presentation.
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