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Photobook Grant 2022 – Awardee Announcement

ABHISHEK BASU AND JOYONA MEDHI

Sparsee-ing

Awardee of the Alkazi Photobook Grant 2022, Sparsee-ing is a collaborative project drawing material from the Gazdar Barucha Archives, showcasing the intersection of fictionalised as well as lived Parsi lives, relating to members of the fading community from the industrial township of Jamshedpur. The book aims to emphasise the ambiguities of archival proof, attempting to restore and then reframe historical narratives: provoking fantasies, interlinking reconstructions and forging a speculative storytelling. It also seeks to capture a vivid cultural heritage drawn from the imagination and the retelling of individuals from the community who share biographical details and family trajectories through interviews and written commentary. 

Abhishek Basu is a freelance art/documentary photographer from Tatanagar (Jharkhand, India), who works for various publishing houses on experimental storytelling techniques, book design, curation and multimedia. A quarterly tabloid initiative of his – Provoke Papers, focusing on migration and labour relations, takes root in a series titled ‘How green was my mountain’ which is his studio’s print newspaper.

Joyona Medhi is currently working as an Academic Associate in IIMC, New Delhi, India. With a background in media sociology, she looks for every opportunity to go long-form especially with her writing, interviewing and research. She’s also conducted in-depth interviews along the Indo-Bangladesh border as a Direction Associate for the documentary Borderlands. Her reportage pieces and writings on art have been published in many digital and print magazines.

We would like to thank all the participants for their time and commitment, and look forward to submissions for our future grants as well.