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Photographic artist Asha Thadani discusses her thought process behind her solo exhibition ‘I to Eye: Shades of Humanity’ with the show’s curator Amrutha R. 

The photographs feature people from the Denotified, Nomadic and Dalit communities, people relegated to the outer edges of our society. The images are anchored in themes of identity, labour, gender, transformation and resilience.

Your work engages with communities that navigate faith, caste, labour, and marginalisation. How do you balance documentation with responsibility when representing vulnerable narratives?

Consent from the subjects is a critical part of the work. It is a process of negotiation. I am a devoted intruder and spend a lot of time living with and engaging with the communities. 

While consent is more about trust than it is about permission, privacy is far more complex to navigate. Disclosing personal information makes people feel vulnerable and exposed. At the same time, there is a fundamental human need to engage. 

I operate in the white heat of this contradiction, delicately balancing how a subject is perceived and how they perceive themselves. But, no matter how lofty the intentions may be, in ways obvious or subtle, we all trespass.

Dignity in the Dust: A Banjara worker toils in a stone quarry.

Given that you use the gaze as a tool for resistance, specifically through subjects looking directly at the camera to assert their “right to look” , what are your views on gaze theory and its shifting perspectives? 

I’m glad that the 1970s framework of gaze theory is now being redefined. Today, when everyone is simultaneously a photographer, a subject, and a viewer, outdated theories that obsess over power dynamics between the artist, the subject, and the viewer collapse. Using a map of the ancient world to navigate a modern city is a reductive lens that alienates a complex creative work from its story and emotional autonomy. Art critique cannot be a game of “spot the transgression” anymore. 

So, modern theory now explores the surveillance gaze and the........

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