Ladies Compartment #1, 2006. Digital C-Print.
Anjali Bhargava makes amazing chai, but her real skill is behind a camera. She has spent the last 15 years capturing trains, scars, feet, corsets and lips among other subjects.
Trained in the techniques of photo journalism, she is a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She has worked on many sides of the business as a photo editor, assistant, studio manager, and producer. Accolades include the Eddie Adams Workshop where she won an assignment with the New York Times Sunday Magazine. She has worked with the the New York chapter of the South Asian Women's Creative Collective (SAWCC) for 10 years, and is currently on their board of directors. I visited Bhargava at her Brooklyn apartment not long after the opening of her show Beauty and Danger.
Trained in the techniques of photo journalism, she is a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She has worked on many sides of the business as a photo editor, assistant, studio manager, and producer. Accolades include the Eddie Adams Workshop where she won an assignment with the New York Times Sunday Magazine. She has worked with the the New York chapter of the South Asian Women's Creative Collective (SAWCC) for 10 years, and is currently on their board of directors. I visited Bhargava at her Brooklyn apartment not long after the opening of her show Beauty and Danger.
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Dancers Feet, 2007. Digital C-Print.
Contemporary Confections: Let’s start by talking about your current exhibition Beauty and Danger at Sunita Bar.
Anjali Bhargava: I'm showing four images from the the Lips series, and some images from the Corset and Feet series in this exhibition.
SAWCC just had a literary festival called “Stranger Love.” Our regular designer was unavailable, so I said, “Okay, I'll do it." I’m not a designer, but I can do the basic stuff. I knew that I would need an image to work with (I don’t know how to design without imagery), so I started thinking about the ideas behind "Stranger Love." In the South Asian context there’s all kinds of references that “stranger love” makes, like with arranged marriage. There's also the process of love between two strangers, that is, love at first sight. Also, for writers it's trying to share your voice, and your [labor of love with strangers]. There are a number of meanings in that title. I thought it would be cool do something were there’s a barrier between your voice, or your mouth, and the audience. So, I had the idea to photograph lips behind Saran wrap. I photographed myself...and almost suffocated. It’s kind of difficult being your own model and doing something like that. In some of the pictures I was literally gasping for air. It’ funny, reactions to it have been broad.
CC: Like what?
AB: For men, asphyxiation is generally what comes to mind. Someone else thought it was a dental damn.
CC: I really didn’t notice the Saran wrap. I was so caught up in the sexiness of the image.
AB:I think it is sexy too [but] some people have said that the image is disturbing. People don’t always get that these are lips. For me, it’s almost as much about the lipstick and the stigma around the color. Red lipstick can send a very specific message.
Anjali Bhargava: I'm showing four images from the the Lips series, and some images from the Corset and Feet series in this exhibition.
SAWCC just had a literary festival called “Stranger Love.” Our regular designer was unavailable, so I said, “Okay, I'll do it." I’m not a designer, but I can do the basic stuff. I knew that I would need an image to work with (I don’t know how to design without imagery), so I started thinking about the ideas behind "Stranger Love." In the South Asian context there’s all kinds of references that “stranger love” makes, like with arranged marriage. There's also the process of love between two strangers, that is, love at first sight. Also, for writers it's trying to share your voice, and your [labor of love with strangers]. There are a number of meanings in that title. I thought it would be cool do something were there’s a barrier between your voice, or your mouth, and the audience. So, I had the idea to photograph lips behind Saran wrap. I photographed myself...and almost suffocated. It’s kind of difficult being your own model and doing something like that. In some of the pictures I was literally gasping for air. It’ funny, reactions to it have been broad.
CC: Like what?
AB: For men, asphyxiation is generally what comes to mind. Someone else thought it was a dental damn.
CC: I really didn’t notice the Saran wrap. I was so caught up in the sexiness of the image.
AB:I think it is sexy too [but] some people have said that the image is disturbing. People don’t always get that these are lips. For me, it’s almost as much about the lipstick and the stigma around the color. Red lipstick can send a very specific message.
Untitled from the Corset series, 2008. Digital C-print.
CC: Are you the subject in all of the images in Beauty and Danger?
AB: No, just in this set of lip images. They get a lot of attention.
AB: No, just in this set of lip images. They get a lot of attention.
CC: The marks [in this image] are a result of wearing the corset?
Untitled from the Corset series, 2008. Digital C-print.
AB: Yes. These marks were left after she had it on for only a half hour. This is a pivotal image in the [Corset] series. What it comes down to is the mark something like this makes on us. There are so many things that we do for beauty. This is a quirky one and it has a history of being very damaging. It’s undeniably beautiful though. And like a great pair of heels, it makes you feel like a million bucks. It makes you walk, stand and interact with other people differently.
CC: So do you run a portrait studio? I mean, is that your everyday business?
Untitled Portrait, 2008. Digital C-print.
AB:I don't have a studio, I rent them sometimes but I mostly do location work. I tell people that hire me for [fashion shoots] that I’m looking at the person's gesture and emotion, and the [overall] graphic, but they have to watch out for the clothes, because it’s really my last priority. I shoot in my apartment sometimes too.
CC: How do you select subjects for your fine art photographs?
AB: A lot of them are just people I meet in life. Sometimes [my subjects] are people I've met at parties. I’ve been interested in scars for the last 15 years, so I talk about it all the time. I think a lot of people have interesting scars, so I constantly put it out there in conversation. Once, a woman at friend’s barbecue was wearing long satin gloves. I went up to her and said, “Hi. Why are you wearing gloves?” [Laughing] I can be kind of rude, because I stare. But I love watching people and their body language. But she turned out to be a hand and foot model. She had some fun shoes, so we played one day.
I put out a call for the project Unsuitable Girls, a project that I worked on with [artist] Swati Khurana. She made the trophies in the photographs for the different types of “unsuitables.” I put out a list a trophy categories and asked women to nominate their selves. Women wrote to me about why they were Most Reluctant Housekeeper, Most Disheveled Child, or Least Dutiful Wife, etc. I photographed many of them in their homes.
CC: How do you select subjects for your fine art photographs?
AB: A lot of them are just people I meet in life. Sometimes [my subjects] are people I've met at parties. I’ve been interested in scars for the last 15 years, so I talk about it all the time. I think a lot of people have interesting scars, so I constantly put it out there in conversation. Once, a woman at friend’s barbecue was wearing long satin gloves. I went up to her and said, “Hi. Why are you wearing gloves?” [Laughing] I can be kind of rude, because I stare. But I love watching people and their body language. But she turned out to be a hand and foot model. She had some fun shoes, so we played one day.
I put out a call for the project Unsuitable Girls, a project that I worked on with [artist] Swati Khurana. She made the trophies in the photographs for the different types of “unsuitables.” I put out a list a trophy categories and asked women to nominate their selves. Women wrote to me about why they were Most Reluctant Housekeeper, Most Disheveled Child, or Least Dutiful Wife, etc. I photographed many of them in their homes.
Birthmark, 2007. Digital C-print.
CC: How often do you adjust images to, for instance, make your subject’s nose appear thinner or his or her lips more pouty?
AB: If a client asks me to change something, I will. If I don’t have to retouch, I prefer not to. I have fixed someone’s chin before. I'm very careful about that though.
[...]
AB: If a client asks me to change something, I will. If I don’t have to retouch, I prefer not to. I have fixed someone’s chin before. I'm very careful about that though.
[...]
My photographs are honest documentation of a person and they’re proud to have that image represent them. I think that’s a valid thing to being doing. But it’s hard to feel embraced by the art world. I’m sort of in between [genres]. People say, “Your portraits are pretty,” and I’m like “Yeah, they are." They’re quiet, a lot of them are not political, and they’re not conceptual. I no longer feel like I have to justify myself.
CC: Do you do prefer to shoot digital or is it just the name of the game now?
AB: I don’t see a reason not to, especially given how developed the technology is. I used to shoot slides and getting the exposures right can be really difficult. My instincts were so honed. I feel like I’ve become a little lazy now. I can’t tell you the last time I used a light meter. I do miss actually seeing the final product – looking at a slide or contact sheet. Now it’s an organized mess on my hard drive.
CC: What’s the average number of photographs that you take in a year?
AB: It depends on the year and how many shoots I have. 6,000-10,000 frames could be an extremely slow year or a really busy week. My average portrait shoot os 400-500 frames.
CC: Do you do prefer to shoot digital or is it just the name of the game now?
AB: I don’t see a reason not to, especially given how developed the technology is. I used to shoot slides and getting the exposures right can be really difficult. My instincts were so honed. I feel like I’ve become a little lazy now. I can’t tell you the last time I used a light meter. I do miss actually seeing the final product – looking at a slide or contact sheet. Now it’s an organized mess on my hard drive.
CC: What’s the average number of photographs that you take in a year?
AB: It depends on the year and how many shoots I have. 6,000-10,000 frames could be an extremely slow year or a really busy week. My average portrait shoot os 400-500 frames.
Ladies Compartment #3, 2006. Digital C-Print.
I travel a lot and photograph [when I'm away]. As an adult I have been able to see more of India, even simple things like the ladies compartment of the trains, which I never experienced as a child traveling with my family. I've made the most trips to India, but feel like I still have a lot to see and experience there. I also do still shots for movies.
CC: What kind of changes have you seen in the field since you started?
AB: There’s a lot more crap. Really, you look at the old masters and (granted they probably had lots of bad frames—we all do) there was integrity and craftsmanship in what they shared. You really had everything: They images are beautiful, and meaningful. The graphic element is there, and the lighting is impeccable. [Bad] lighting is one of those things that kills me, because it’s very important and can help to covey your message.
CC: What kind of changes have you seen in the field since you started?
AB: There’s a lot more crap. Really, you look at the old masters and (granted they probably had lots of bad frames—we all do) there was integrity and craftsmanship in what they shared. You really had everything: They images are beautiful, and meaningful. The graphic element is there, and the lighting is impeccable. [Bad] lighting is one of those things that kills me, because it’s very important and can help to covey your message.
I have the instincts of working in photography for 15 years [and now] I have so many ideas about what I would like to do with video, but I don’t have the same technical set and I’m a little intimidated by it. Although, I see a lot of video work and wonder why I’m intimidated by it.
Train, 2005. Digital C-Print.
I just saw the Edward Steichen show at the International Center for Photography. He had a journalism background too, I think. He started working for Condé Nast, and he made a lot of the famous Vogue images. His work is considered to be art, fashion, journalistic...[photographers] like him did it all and with a consistent voice. Now it’s like the photojournalists think they can be sloppy because it’s about content, artists think they can be sloppy too because it’s about content. Fashion photographers, ironically, are master technicians. The people that are making the big bucks know how to manipulate light. They know how to manipulate everything.
It’s hard for me to determine where my work fits. I’m happy to shoot a Jimmy Choo campaign, and I’m also happy to have my personal work hanging in galleries and museums. In the long term, I just want to be known as a good photographer and not have my work pigeonholed one way or another...Ready for some chai?
CC: Sure! Tell me your ingredients.
AB: 1/3 to 1/4 cups milk to one cup of boiled water, but the proportion depends on the kind of milk you're using; sugar - I like to cook it in because it’s has a different taste that way; ginger - I freeze it because I find it easier to grate; cardamom seeds; cloves; and a little black pepper. I use Lipton Red Label Tea for color then I turn the stove off and add Lipton Green Label Tea which adds flavor, but cannot be boiled - I use it as garnish. I let it sit for a minute or two with the Green label and then strain.
It’s hard for me to determine where my work fits. I’m happy to shoot a Jimmy Choo campaign, and I’m also happy to have my personal work hanging in galleries and museums. In the long term, I just want to be known as a good photographer and not have my work pigeonholed one way or another...Ready for some chai?
CC: Sure! Tell me your ingredients.
AB: 1/3 to 1/4 cups milk to one cup of boiled water, but the proportion depends on the kind of milk you're using; sugar - I like to cook it in because it’s has a different taste that way; ginger - I freeze it because I find it easier to grate; cardamom seeds; cloves; and a little black pepper. I use Lipton Red Label Tea for color then I turn the stove off and add Lipton Green Label Tea which adds flavor, but cannot be boiled - I use it as garnish. I let it sit for a minute or two with the Green label and then strain.
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