The View From Mumbai: the Indian photographers taking back control through self-publishing

The View From... is a column on It’s Nice That written by a team of international correspondents in major creative cities around the world. Every two weeks we report on the design scene in these cities, exploring the topics that are making an impact on the local creative community there. This week, Payal Khandelwal is reporting from Mumbai.

“Self-publishing is a great way forward for Indian photographers. You have more control over your work, and you can choose how you want to represent yourself without making compromises,” says Sheetal Mallar, an Indian photographer who recently released her photobook Braided which explores the role maternal figures play in our lives and how we are shaped by them, through her own personal narrative.

Self-publishing indeed tends to be a liberating experience – putting the work out there in ways that feel most fulfilling/creative to an artist, often without being constricted by expectations. This is what seems to be driving the increase in self-published photobooks in India – emanating from different regions of the country, each unique in its theme and presentation. Some deeply personal in nature and some merging personal and political in dazzling ways.

Interdisciplinary practices like writing, drawing, and design coming together with photography to build the narrative has been one of the biggest shifts that photobooks in India have seen. The cloth cover (with five color options) of Braided, for example, is inspired by Kanjivaram sarees that the photographer’s mother and grandmother wore. Apart from fabric, the book uses stitching, pasted images, and drawings alongside the photographs. “These tactile elements could convey emotions that maybe an image couldn’t. It also slows down the pace of the book and makes the viewer engage with the work in a quiet way,” says Sheetal.

In many ways, photobooks have freed photography from its predefined formats. “The possibilities of what artists can do with the book has helped give space for experimentation and expansion of lens language,” says Anshika Varma, photographer and founder of Offset Projects. Offset supports photobook-making through a photobook library, a publishing practice, artist talks, residencies, exhibitions, workshops, various collaborative programs, and Offset Bookshop which offers a diverse collection of photobooks from the South Asian region.

Until a few years ago, there were no publishing houses dedicated to photobooks. Some publishing houses would create photobooks occasionally, often based on what worked best in terms of economics and distribution. There have been photobooks by some photo galleries like Tasveer and Photoink, mostly related to the ongoing shows. Then there are some really eminent Indian photographers who have been published by international publishers like Dayanita Singh by Steidl Verlag and Gauri Gill by Edition Patrick Frey.

Nazar Foundation – a non-profit trust founded by photographers Prashant Panjiar and Dinesh Khanna to promote lens-based art – was one of the first formal publishing initiatives in India. Under their Nazar Photography Monograph series, they published four photobooks between 2014-2017. In fact, in 2014, I had a chat with the founders for a magazine article. They were well aware at the time that most people in India were not used to the idea of photobooks and often thought of them as expensive, coffee table books. One of the things they envisioned was that if more photographers would publish smaller, less expensive photobooks through various means including self-publishing, then the audience would inevitably grow. A decade later, their vision seems to be coming true to a large extent.

Now there are dedicated platforms for photobooks like Offset Projects in Delhi and Editions Jojo which is a publishing imprint, bookshop, library, and platform for visual culture based in Mumbai. There are artists-run small publishing setups like Mazhi Books by Indu Antony and Red Turtle Photobook by Soumya Sankar Bose. There is the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts which has been providing grants for photobooks since 2020. And of course, there is also a widening pool of readers. “There is definitely a deep thirst for photobooks in India now,” says Anshika. She also mentions how one could feel a difference post photographer Sohrab Hura’s self-publishing imprint Ugly Dog Books. It brought a shift in photographers’ minds in terms of thinking of self-publishing as an approach to work.

Kaamna Patel, photographer and founder of Editions Jojo, feels that the diversity in the kinds of photobooks we’re seeing in India, both in form and content, responding to the personal and political, is a sign of a healthy ecosystem. “We're rethinking the format to suit our storytelling needs and production possibilities, while at the same time developing an audience, which requires innovation with the resources we have available.” She feels that with the lack of dedicated photobook publishers in the country, self-publishing is an empowering work-around which also allows the pool of published material to organically diversify.

Moreover, it has also started fostering a deep sense of community amongst Indian photographers. “Self-publishing gave me access to the larger community and also to local printers, binders, and materials… One of the best things about it is the people I work(ed) with, the friends I’ve made, and the skills acquired across all the various projects,” Kaamna adds. As a publisher, Anshika also feels that she has been able to find creative solutions to challenges, especially distribution and funding, with the help of the community and “circles of trust” she has established over the years.

Self-published photobooks are seeing both stories and readers from different parts of the country, not just the big cities. Mumbai-based photographer Anurag Banerjee shares his personal experience with his two photobooks – I'm Not Here addresses the idea of home and is a homage to his hometown Shillong (the capital of Meghalaya, a state in the northeastern part of India), and The Songs Of Our People looks at identity and belonging through the lives of musicians in Meghalaya.

He confesses that with his first book’s release, he had aspirations to find exposure in international “art circles”. He felt that not only did that not happen, the book didn’t even receive favourable feedback from the art circles within India. However, a book launch event in Shillong shifted something in his universe. “I felt Shillong's embrace like never before and it asserted for me what my place of belonging is.” He then did a giveaway on Instagram for the book which ended up receiving many entries from different parts of India including some far flung corners. “The book ended up going to places where one would not previously imagine a photobook going. This made me realise that my work does not really cater to the who’s-who of the art world, but it is actually this world that I relate to who in turn, relates to my work.” His second book, he says, was made with this understanding.

Many photobooks are now traveling internationally and are getting terrific reception. “We’ve been presenting at international book fairs such as Printed Matter in New York, Arles Book Fair and Polycopies in France, Booked: Hong Kong Art Book Fair, and the kind of feedback we get, not just from the visitors but also from the publishers, is incredible. Sometimes, when we are left with just a few copies at the end, we turn it into a library so that more people can experience what’s happening in book making in South Asia,” says Anshika. Editions Jojo also took their book How to Climb a Tree by Aparna Nori and Kaghazi Pairahan, their traveling exhibition on publishing and resistance in South Asia to Printed Matter this year.

The idea of what a photobook can be and whose hands it can find itself in are constantly evolving in India. For some artists, like Anurag, “The photobook is just a book and that is what I want to make. I no longer aspire to make art objects which you need to wear gloves to peruse. I want to make books that people love and live with, like we have done with some of our favourite books.”

Payal shares her top tips including a must-visit Mumbai bookshop, podcasts on photographic culture in South Asia and

• Tucked into a tiny bylane in Bandra West, Mumbai, the independently run Trilogy Curated Bookshop and Library has some of the best books curation I have seen in India and a lot of Indian photobooks find a friendly home here.

• Glass Eye: A Podcast on South Asian Visual Culture delves into the photographic practice in South Asia and its various facets. It is hosted by three visual artists – Adira Thekkuveettil, Akshay Mahajan, and Kaamna Patel. The first season of The Photobook podcast by photographer Priyanka Chharia features in-depth conversations with various Indian photobook makers.

• Neither is a new magazine that came out last year with the intention of creating a space for new and experimental photographic practices emerging out of South Asia and the diaspora. The first issue features works by 15 artists working with the medium. The magazine is created by photographer Bharat Sikka, edited by artist Sunil Shah, and has been designed by Loose Joints.

• Chennai Photo Biennale is an outstanding festival of photography that takes place at various venues across the city of Chennai including heritage buildings, parks, beaches, art galleries, train stations etc. The fourth edition of the Biennale will take place from 20 December 2024 – 16 March 2025, and will feature exhibitions curated under the broad thematic umbrella ‘Why Photograph?’ which aims to explore the changing relevance of photography in society.