Anjali Bhargava makes amazing chai though her real skill is in making pictures. She has spent the last 15 years capturing a wide array of subjects, from women's feet and lips to train cars abroad.
Bhargava learned techniques of photojournalism while studying at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She has since worked as a photo editor, studio manager, and producer, receiving assignments for prestigious publications such as New York
Times Magazine. Currently based in Brooklyn, Bhargava has
worked with the the New York chapter of the South Asian Women's Creative Collective for the past decade and currently sits on their board of directors. Following is my conversation with the artist in her home and studio, where she walked me through her portfolio and then whipped up a delicious chai (recipe included here).
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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.
South Asian Women's Creative Collective 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, so I started thinking about the ideas behind the title. In the South Asian context there’s all kinds of references that “stranger love” can make, like arranged marriage. There's also the process of love between two strangers, that is, love at first sight. For writers, it's trying to share your voice and 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 mouth and the audience. I had the idea to photograph
lips behind Saran Wrap. I photographed myself -- and almost suffocated. In some of the pictures I was literally gasping for air. Funny, people's reactions to it have been broad.
CC: Like what?
AB: Generally for men asphyxiation comes to mind. But someone else thought it was a dental damn. I think it is sexy but some people have said 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...
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| Untitled from the Corset series, 2008. Digital C-print. |
CC: The marks in this image are the result of wearing a corset?
AB: Yes. They 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. Corsets are a quirky example. They have a history of being very damaging though they are undeniably beautiful. And like a great pair of heels, wearing a corset can make you feel like a million bucks. It makes you walk, stand, and interact with people differently.
CC: How do you select your subjects?
AB: A lot of them are just people I meet in life. Sometimes they are people I've met at parties. I’ve been interested in scars for the last 15 years, so I constantly put it out there in conversation. I can be kind of rude because I stare. But I love watching people and body language. There was a woman at friend’s barbecue who was wearing long satin gloves. I went up to her and said, 'Hi. Why are you wearing gloves?' She turned out to be a hand and foot model. She had some fun shoes so we played one day.
For the project
Unsuitable Girls that I worked on with [artist]
Swati Khurana -- she made the trophies that appear in the photographs for different types of “unsuitables” -- I put out a call listing trophy categories and asked women to nominate themselves. Women wrote to me saying why they were, for example, 'Most Reluctant Housekeeper,' 'Most Disheveled Child,' or 'Least Dutiful Wife.' I photographed many of them in their homes.
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| Birthmark, 2007. Digital C-print. |
CC: How often do you adjust your images to, for instance, make your subject’s nose appear thinner or 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. My photographs are honest documentation of a person and they are [generally] 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." I’m like, 'Yeah, they are.' They are quiet and a lot of them are not political or conceptual. I no longer feel like I have to justify myself.
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 is 400-500 frames.
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. Most of my trips have been to India but feel like I still have a lot to see and experience there.
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| Ladies Compartment #3, 2006. Digital C-Print. |
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Train, 2005. Digital C-Print.
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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 as we all do -- but there was integrity and craftsmanship in what they shared. You really had everything. Their images were 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 covey your message. I have certain instincts from working in photography for 15 years. Now, I have many ideas about what I would like to do in video. But I don’t have the same technical set and I’m a little intimidated. Although I see a lot of video work and wonder why I’m intimidated by it.
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 made a lot of the famous Vogue images. His work is considered to be art, fashion, and also 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, again, 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 commercial campaign and I’m 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!
AB: I use 1/3 to 1/4 cups milk to one cup of boiled water -- the proportion depends on the kind of milk you're using. Sugar -- I like to cook in to the mix because it tastes different 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. I boil it and then turn the stove off and add Lipton Green label tea which adds flavor but it cannot be boiled. I use that as garnish. I let it sit for a minute or two with the Green label and then strain.
Uploaded to Flickr by slicedgeek on May 28, 2009.
