Jordan, 2014
Mahesh picks up litter in the hills surrounding the Petra archeological site
Using the creative process of subjective documentary photography and the versatile medium of the photo essay, Mahesh Shantaram undertakes a visual exploration into the sense-of-place through its contemporary culture, society, architecture and territory.
Being inventive with process and knowingly embracing the limitations of representational documentary liberates artistic production. For Shantaram, this sometimes means making his family and friends a part of the journey-experience so that a place may become less foreign and more personal. Or, as in the case of his 2023 MFA Photography project, using a combination of computational imagery and artificial intelligence to visually depict night life in India’s tech-bro culture capital as seen through the lived experience of gig workers.
Like ① Narada muni, the famous travelling musician and storyteller in Hindu traditions, Shantaram is an artist who has adopted a life of travel as a process to accumulate experience, disseminate wisdom, submit to the unfamiliar, and find common purpose in diverse human cultures. The story-telling prowess of the photographic visual lies not merely in the single image (so passé!) but in a sequence of images that riff off on each others notes. Any time two or more images come together on the same page, there is potential for a ② visual narrative to develop. Hence, narrada.in.
Maybe it was because of his cross-country migration due to war during his pre-teens. Or perhaps due to privileged access to the World Book Encyclopaedia during his school years followed by the advent of cheap civil aviation. Curiosity and displacement became a way of life for Shantaram and photography his main expression during travels across 45 countries worldwide. Whether prompted by magazine assignments (NAGALAND, BEOGRAD), NGO work (GUINÉE), prestigious artist residencies (BRUXELLES, CAERDYDD), family vacations (KASHMIR, HONG KONG), or the odd trip forced by expiring credit card points...
Mahesh Shantaram is the rolling stone that just keeps on gathering mass.
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This website is part of Shantaram’s experiments in documentary photography. Also see indiacomestogether.com: discover the chaos, colour, and complexity of India’s diversity.
Hong Kong, 2017
Cover of Credit Suisse Bulletin magazine
Issue I/2020
Frankfurt, 2018
River Main seen through the window of
a Boeing 787 Dreamliner