Sometimes Magic Looks Like This: Narrative Threads in Eight Thirty’s Works

On 2 October 2020, nine women photographers gathered over a Zoom call initiated by Riti Sengupta. The pandemic and the resultant experience of static time led Sengupta to reach out to some of her fellow storytellers and image-makers. This included Adira Thekkuveettil, Divya Cowasji, Kirthana Devdas, Menty Jamir, Mithila Jariwala, Pavithra Ramanujam, Vinita Barretto and Zahra Amiruddin. They came together virtually with the initial intent of creating a zine that would explore the dissemination of the image to a wide intergenerational audience, spread across various disciplines as well as geographical areas in India. What began as discussions on photography and looking at each other’s work then grew into more frequent and intimate conversations. Such conversations led to the formation of their new collective, Eight Thirty.

The nine members of the collective are all connected to each other through varied associations of the past, ranging from university to workshops at photo festivals. However, there are also members of the collective who have never met each other physically. Despite each of them having their individual practices as photographers and artists, there are narrative threads that link Eight Thirty together. These are woven into the way the nine artists explore their personal lives and their relationships with nature, family and their own bodies. Through their works, they confront and peel away barriers placed by society to reveal experiences and feelings of love, sadness, beauty and vulnerability that we, as humans, all identify with.

For this album, each member of the collective picked from a set of words I shared with them as a response to their works. Over an email exchange and conversation, they responded to these prompts with a particular image. With an attention to the self, this curation composes a narrative that asks the reader to pause and visually listen to the sound of these images. Collectively, these words and images carry stories, lived experiences and offer a reading into the process that structures Eight Thirty.

All images courtesy of Eight Thirty.

Click on the image to view the album