"To Finally Have Something of Your Own to Mine."

Dayanita Singh is the recipient of the coveted 2022 Hasselblad Award. Keeping the photograph at the centre, she speaks to Shreevatsa Nevatia about books, book objects, photo novels, exhibitions and museums.

- Shreevatsa Nevatia

At 62, Dayanita Singh has a gaze that feels forever contemporary, forever compassionate. Released last year, her photo novel, Let’s See, did something unique – it reminded us that human conviviality and creativity don’t only last, they blossom, too. As Book Building, another book that Singh made in 2022, bears testimony to her labour, Gerhard Steidl, Singh’s publisher, reminds us, “Singh’s book no longer only reproduces art; the book is art.” Rather than sell silver prints of her work, Singh opts to construct books or ‘book objects’ with her pictures, making them affordable, and even more coveted.

Many of Singh’s book objects fold out as exhibitions. Some even hold museums within them. Dancing with My Camera, a large-scale retrospective, collects much of Singh’s work, thereby giving audiences a chance to see how her archive has quietly grown over time, and how her craft has flourished. After a five-month run in Berlin last year, the exhibition is now on display in Munich, and, later, in 2023, it will travel to Luxembourg and Porto. Not one to rest on her laurels, Singh tells us that if you want to discover beauty, you must learn how to ‘let go’.

Recently, celebrated writers like Teju Cole have given us their own guides to Singh’s photography. Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk writes that he is so mesmerised by some of Singh’s photos, he feels he can ‘smell’ them. Beyond their praise, these authors afford us different ways of seeing Singh’s work. They remind us that her images are all in a constant state of becoming. They belong to the past and present, yes, but the future, too.