GAYATRI GANJU

Photobook: The Pregnant Tree

Gayatri Ganju’s meticulously hand-crafted photobook explores the deep connection nurtured by the Kurumba with the forests. An adivasi community of the Nilgiri mountains, their oral storytelling tradition anchors Ganju’s interaction with multiple generations in three different villages from 2016 onwards. The narrative meld of images presented in ‘The Pregnant Tree’ visualises old and new tales of the forest. Mediated through Murthy and Subbu whose storylines are marked with lyric intonation, they usher powerful totems and dreamlike sequences, invoking originary mappings of the Kurumba. Through this process, they share and protect their history, while imagining a possible future.

Gayatri Ganju is an artist from Bangalore, India. She started her career as a documentary photographer after completing an MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from the London College of Communication in 2013. Her current practice has grown into making long-term bodies of work that look at the interconnection between communities and landscape. She is an alumni of the Magnum Foundation Fellowship (2023) and recipient of the Musée du Quai Branly Photography Award (2022).