I am... Only Human

Priyanka Chharia reimagines what it means to be a photographer during a time of chaos and uncertainty.

- Priyanka Chharia

Have you ever met a photographer without a camera? For most of us, it is unthinkable to imagine photography without its visual paraphernalia. What we often forget is its ingenious past, when the medium was closely interconnected with a variety of disciplines such as painting and printmaking, along with hard sciences like physics and chemistry. From curious anthropologists and journalists to wayward travellers and aesthete nobility, photography attracted an eclectic bunch of people, and flourished in the early centuries after its invention, as a medium ripe with promise.

However, fast-forward to the present and the twenty-first-century photographic landscape is vastly different. Many of the erstwhile processes have been relegated to the background and stamped as “alternative” or “creative.” Meanwhile, photographers too have become coerced by the ebbs and flows of the mainstream media industry. It seems to me that what we have gained in accessibility and technological elevation, we have lost in complexity and craftsmanship.

Shifting Beliefs and Practises

But, the last two years have affected creative practitioners in uncommon ways, disrupting livelihoods and artistic development alike. As a photographer, I sat for weeks and perhaps months wondering how to “work from home.” At a time when my peers were zooming their way to productivity, I struggled to keep my photographic practice from becoming a relic. This sense of loss and uncertainty were my constant, yet unwanted companions since the beginning of the pandemic. Surrounded by an endless cacophony of speeding ambulances and social media timelines crying for help, I patted my back simply to survive the day.