Charting Intimacies Online: In Conversation with Chandan Gomes

People You May Know is a photo essay comprised of images from an online exchange the photographer Chandan Gomes had with a stranger named Tara Banerjee. The title is taken from the Facebook feature that suggests people one might want to connect with. Gomes did not know Tara when they began talking online, but through these virtual conversations they developed a familiarity and intimacy with one another. This project, first shown at the French photo festival Rencontres d'Arles 2018 as part of the New Discovery Award, includes screenshots of their conversations juxtaposed alongside various other media such as film posters and film stills, pages from Gomes' journal as well as his photographs.

In this following conversation with Anisha Baid, the photographer discusses his process, motivations and future plans for this body of work.

Anisha Baid (AB): You have previously talked about how People You May Know started with your documentation of an online conversation with an anonymous person. Could you reflect a little bit on the beginnings of this conversation and how the impulse of taking it out of that context came about? Did you speak with this person about the project or show it to them?

Chandan Gomes (CG): People You May Know is an archive of the conversations I have had with a stranger-friend on Facebook and what that led to in the real world. It is a visual document of the intimacies we shared virtually, accompanied by a sense of distrust and irony. I often found myself speaking to Tara on Facebook, while in the company of my friends, family, the people I claim to love. 

Our initial conversations were like any other strangers writing on Facebook. They began with the usual, mundane subjects but the intimacy grew over a period of time. When I decided to explore the idea of constructing a photonovella centring on our conversations, I was convinced by both its relevance to many others who would easily connect with the circumstances as well as its potential to push the boundaries of my own practice rooted in documentary photography, but over time enriched by storytelling in cinema and literature.

What I showed at Rencontres d'Arles in 2018 (the exhibition was supported by PHOTOINK, Delhi) was the first part of the project. I have shown these images to her and I am now working on a second part of this project which is about moving from the virtual to the real. The second part addresses the last part of your question, among other things. I envisage this work as a two-part photonovella.

AB: While there is an interplay of many types of images in this project, the screenshot remains central to it. Do you think of the screenshot as a photographic process/exercise? How are you thinking about the documentary (which is usually lens-based in your practice) in relation to the digital realm? 

CG: Though my practice has its roots in documentary photography and photojournalism, as an artist my central concern has been storytelling. For me, photography is a medium to tell stories. I will do—and incorporate into my work—whatever is required in order to share a story effectively. I am also aware of the limitations of photography and how it has to carry the burden of information. Hence, in my practice, I constantly keep looking outside of photography to make work. In one of my ongoing projects dealing with the separation of lovers, I am introducing elements of sculpture, animation and sound. I recently shot my first short fiction film as it is a story that I felt could only be told through this medium. To me the story matters the most!

AB: Documentary photography in recent times has taken an interesting turn towards purposefully blurring the lines between fact and fiction, the staged and the captured, the constructed and the found. However, this project deeply resonates with the present moment of constant connectedness and widespread loneliness. Could you share some of your thoughts about this tension between the condition of isolation and togetherness in this increasingly connected world?

CG: Through this work, I wish to throw light on how our dependence on the internet has reshaped our social life and interactions, sexual habits and our understanding of the self. In the virtual world everyone appropriates and imitates who they want to be but often tend to hide who they really are. Who is Tara Banerjee? Is she a mirror I am looking into or a window through which I am being looked at? This a question that I am constantly trying to explore in this two-part work.  

I believe that the more people know me as an artist, the less they seem to know me as a person. And the way most people know artists is by accessing their work on the internet. On a daily basis I receive several messages on Instagram and Facebook and I feel I am more recognised as an artist than I was about two years ago. But the number of people who know me closely has reduced. In this day and age, togetherness and isolation cannot be separated and sometimes how the former leads to the latter can be scary, existentially. Covid-19 has made me realise that I am more interested in being understood as a person than as an artist and the need for genuine friendships and relationships in life.

All images by Chandan Gomes. From the series People You May Know. Images courtesy of the artist and PHOTOINK.