In Person: Anshika Varma on the GUFTGU Zine Box

For those of you who missed our first of a series of live sessions titled In Person and for those who wish to revisit it, here is our conversation with Anshika Varma. A photographer, editor and curator with an investment in personal, collective and mythical histories, Varma is interested in exploring the intricate relationship between memory and objects as markers of identity. She is the founder of Offset Projects, an initiative that works to create channels of engagement with photography and book-making through workshops, residencies, artist talks, pop-up reading rooms and collaborative exercises in publishing.

In this conversation, we discuss the GUFTGU Zine Box which has been constructed as a curation of nine zines authored by lens practitioners from South Asia. The contributors include Jaisingh Nageshwaran, Uma Bista, Arko Datto, Noon Meem, Nandita Raman, Arun Vijai Mathavan, Cheryl Mukherji, Diwas Raja Kc, Adira Thekkuveettil and Amarnath Praful. Reflecting on the series, Varma says:

"The emerging photographic voices from the region offer a complex study of a land in transit, triggered by the personal responses of the photographers to their contemporary social and geographical climates. The works included simultaneously refer to and refute the social histories of their assumed identities. These photographs are a form of introspection, expression and resistance. Each zine in this edition has been put together keeping in mind the intent and motivations behind the subject of the work."

Live streamed on 24 January 2021.