India through South-East Asian lens: An opportunity for Expat women photographers to showcase their talent

NEW DELHI: Museo Camera – the only curated camera museum in Asia, in collaboration with Asian Community News (ACN) Network, has invited image submissions (clicked photographs) by women photography enthusiasts from South-East Asian expat community in India.

The selected images depicting varied facets of Indian life, culture, heritage, monuments will be put on display in the “India through South-East Asian lens” exhibition at Museo Camera, the Centre for The Photographic Arts in Gurugram from March 7-11.

The event also aims at celebrating Women’s Day on March 8, which coincides well with the time of the exhibition.

The brainchild of the veteran photographer, historian, and archivist Aditya Arya, the Museo Camera set off its journey in 2009 with his personal collection of antique cameras and other rare photographic equipment dating back to 1850, as well as from the era of World War I & II.

Today it is the largest not-for-profit crowd-funded centre for Photographic Arts in South East Asia with 2,500 cameras at a space of 18,000 sq feet. Set up in 2016 in Gurugram, the museum is a unique public-private partnership between India Photo Archive Foundation and Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG).

While talking about the exhibition ‘India through South-East Asian lens’, Aditya Arya, Founder Director, Museo Camera, said it was an initiative aimed at promoting the photography skills of the women photographers and travel enthusiasts from East Asian countries like Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Singapore and others, and also to promote awareness about Indian culture and strengthen art and cultural relations between India and these countries.

→The invitation is for the women photography enthusiasts from East Asian countries only.  

→Images can be shared at seawomen@museocamera.org by March 2

→Selected images would be displayed in printed form at the Museo Camera on March 7-11.

→The maximum number of submissions by each participant should not exceed five.

→The images must be shot using DSLR, mirror-less cameras, or high-end mobile phones.

→High-resolution images not exceeding 25mb with minimum size 5mb in RGB format

“We have a large community of expats staying and working in India, and their number is growing with each passing day. India is a country with rich cultural heritage and people coming to India go around places and shoot images with cameras and smartphones. Ours is an attempt to offer a sense of accomplishment and also to recognize their photography talent of the women enthusiasts around International Women’s Day on March 8,” Arya added.

Those interested can send their images along with their CV/Bio at seawomen@museocamera.org by March 2, and the maximum number of submissions by each participant should not exceed five.

Open to women expats living and working in India from South-East Asian countries only, the exhibition invites only high-resolution images not exceeding 25mb with minimum size 5mb in RGB format. The images must be shot using DSLR, mirror-less cameras, or high-end mobile phones.

Images will remain the property of the respective photographers who can collect the printed versions at Museo Camera after the last date of the exhibition.

To promote the initiative and spread awareness among the people of East Asian communities staying and working in India, Museo Camera has collaborated with Asian Community News (ACN) Network that runs an online news media service www.asiancommunitynews.com covering communities from Japan, Korea, China, and other South East Asian countries.

More about the Museo Camera:

Along with the collection, there are two floors dedicated to art galleries with rotating exhibitions, workshop spaces, dark rooms, a library and resource centre, Cafe and a Museum shop.

The idea behind setting up Museo Camera in Gurugram was to give the city a much-needed space for art and culture.

Museo Camera is an experiential space that showcases the history and art of photography. It is an iconic landmark in Gurugram and a must-visit for all residents and visitors in the National Capital Region.

Aditya Arya, the man behind South Asia’s largest space for cameras and photographic equipment had started collecting cameras as a hobby during his travels 40 years ago.

With the idea of making common populace accessible to the interesting story the cameras have, Arya set up this museum with galleries, dark rooms, seminar halls, shops, a cafeteria, and a library.

The museum has galleries showcasing the journey of camera from its invention to the present day including aerial and spy cameras used during World War I and II, camera obscura—used to create portraits in the 19th century, the world’s oldest 3D camera, a camera obscura—used to create portraits in the 19th century and the smallest camera made with a prism.