Politics of representation

Members of the LGBTQ community pose as supermodels and celebrate their differences in this photography exhibition titled Body Politics

Do you love your body? The answer you get, might often be a 'not really'. But if you ask the same question to someone from the LGBTQ community, the answer is a surprising 'yes'.



A year ago, four young photographers from Bangalore decided to capture this very spirit of the community through their lens and thus the idea of Body Politics, a photo exhibition was born.

Through nearly 45 photographs, Body Politics will feature the works of professional photographers Arnab, Nishant Ratnakar, Indu Antony and Shiva. The exhibition, which is a part of the Bengaluru Pride and Karnataka Queer Habba 2010, aims to explore the looks and lifestyles of people whom the society terms as different.

Explaining why the exhibition is called Body Politics, artiste and curator Suresh Jayaram says, "The initial idea was to share space with the alternate community in the city and give a different perspective to the body. The photographs focus on the complexity of the body and the politics of representation. It is about how every gesture, look and stance has politics behind it."

Body Politics, however, makes it a point to not show dull moments through the many colour and black and white prints. Instead, it catches gays, lesbians and transsexuals in a happy mood celebrating their difference. Shiva chronicles the journey of Chandni, a transsexual and catches her in different moods while Indu brings in a whole collection of photographs featuring transsexuals, who want to be super models. Meanwhile, Nishant focuses on a particular homosexual individual and Arnab looks at the male physique and sculpted bodies at large.

Describing himself as a storyteller and revealing why he chose a 23-year-old homosexual as his subject, Nishant says, "The idea was to break the stereotype through a protagonist. This guy is a young professional who is gay and has a happy family life. I wanted to bring out the issues and the ideas about them through a single protagonist."

Under each collection, there will also be a handmade album by the photographers where various things that their subjects say and believe will be jotted down to give each snap a personal touch. According to Shiva, it was a conscious effort to click in the natural environment of the subject.

Sharing that Body Politics is all about celebrating diversity, Shiva says, "I wanted to play with colours as it is an important part of this community. I told my subject to pose just as they wanted and clicked. I wanted them to bring out a gesture that best describes them."

Body Politics promises to be an exhibition with a difference. With lots of colour, expressions and rare moments, these photographs tell the story of what it takes to be different with a happy undertone.

At: 1 Shanthi Road, Shantinagar
On till: November 24, 11 am
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