Acknowledgement of Country

Presented by Photo Australia, Melbourne (www.photo.org.au) and Autograph, London (www.autograph.org.uk), PHOTO LIVE is a series of 10 online conversations between artists and curators from Australia and the UK that will explore ideas of identity and belonging in the context of human rights, representation and social justice. This program highlights the importance of centring black, Indigenous, feminist, queer and other marginalised voices and storytelling in photography.

The eighth talk in the series features British artist Mohini Chandra in conversation with Fijian-Australian artist and curator Shivanjani Lal.

About the Artist

Mohini Chandra (b. 1964, Canvey Island, UK) explores articulations of identity in globalised spaces, and the role of photography in relation to memory and migration. Her research-led visual arts practice is fuelled by a sustained interest in photographic histories and the processes of visual culture within colonial, anthropological and ethnographic discourses. Chandra’s artworks have been exhibited globally, including at Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Photo Kathmandu, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne; Queens Museum of Art, New York; the First Johannesburg Biennale (1995); Focus Festival of Photography in Mumbai (2017); the Third Oceanic Performance Biennale in Auckland (2017); and Houston FotoFest Biennial (2018). Her works are held in the Arts Council Collection (UK), among other public and private collections.

Shivanjani Lal is a Fijian-Australian artist and curator. She is tied to a long history of familial movement; her work uses personal grief to account for ancestral loss and healing. A fundamental concern is how art develops and represents culture as it transitions between contexts, while also probing the experiences of womxn in these situations of flux. Working across mediums to explore Indenture and migratory histories from the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Lal was the recipient of the 2019 Create New South Wales Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship, was a 2020 Studio artist at Parramatta Artists Studios and a recent graduate of the Goldsmiths Masters in Artists Film and Moving Image.

Photo Australia produces PHOTO International Festival of Photography in Melbourne and across regional Victoria. Delivered in collaboration with over 40 cultural institutions, museums, galleries and universities, the Festival features free exhibitions, outdoor displays and artist commissions, alongside events and education programs. The Festival invites artists, curators, writers, academics and audiences to interrogate the major issues of our time through a central theme. The theme for PHOTO 2022 is ‘Being Human’ and the Festival will run from 29 April to 22 May 2022.

Autograph ABP was founded in 1988 in London to support black photographic practices. Between 1988 and 2007, Autograph worked as an agency to initiate projects in gallery spaces, museums, at festivals or in public sites. It developed expertise in influencing policy and practice and was able to demonstrate alternative models of making and sharing creative work produced by artists from the UK and abroad. In 2007, Autograph applied for charitable status and moved to a purpose-built permanent home in Rivington Place, Shoreditch, which provides an important London showcase for its annual public exhibitions, a dedicated learning studio and a place to welcome the many institutions, informal groups and individuals with whom we make and share cultural projects.

1854 Media is a multi-award-winning digital media organisation with a global community including millions of photographers, arts lovers and international brands. Its portfolio includes British Journal of Photography, the world’s oldest photography title (est. 1854), and its awards are among the most viewed photographic exhibitions in history.