DEVELOPING A DISCOURSE

Documentary photographer Taha Ahmad believes his work has a greater purpose than merely being admired by a select audience for its esthetic value. It's when people are able to see the underside of society and understand the prevailing social injustice that the work tries to reveal that it is truly worthwhile.

How were you drawn to art?

TA: I come from a very old family of Lucknow. My late grandfather, Afzal Ahmad, who was a lawyer, took great pride in the arts and cultural scene of Lucknow. Mushairas, baithaks, mehfils, and performances used to take place in our courtyard every weekend, with numerous famous people from the city and around visiting our house. Urdu poetry and Hindustani classical music was a part of my upbringing and routine. This evoked a passion inside me to create, preserve my identity, and to have a sense of cultural belonging.

How has formal education in art helped shape your career?

TA: It brought discipline to the discipline I wanted to pursue! I went to Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi to study Fine Arts, back in 2012. Since I have always been influenced by the various mediums of visual arts and literature from pre-school days, my formal education in Fine Arts acted as a tool to further express, experiment, resist and grow. It gave me a voice, with which I have grown and evolved over the years, not just as an artist but also as a human being. Like everyone, I too have had my share of struggles with experiences and experimentations before I reached a point where I found photography and cinema as my artistic practice. I still do experiment a lot, and always will, with different forms of visual and performance art.

My course at Jamia also helped me to bridge the gap between academia and industry at a very initial stage through events, guest lectures, and exhibitions that we used to host and organize under the headship of Hafeez Ahmed. Through one such exhibition and lecture I met artist Sandeep Biswas, whom I later assisted and worked with.

What, in your view, makes art a language that speaks to a larger audience?