No Place for Men

No Place for Men was a collection of 33 photographs exhibited from November 9th – 17th, 2006 at the British Council in Dacca, Bangladesh, an selected as part of Chobi Mela, the South Asian International Festival of Photography in response to its theme of boundaries. The title of the work is derived from Rudyard Kipling’s Book Kim, which refers to Spiti, the site location of the images, in the following terms - “Surely the Gods live here, this is no place for men”.

Spiti is a ‘culturally Tibetan’ valley in Himachal Pradesh, North India. Since 1993 the researcher has been documenting Spiti in still photographs. This has lead to a book, three catalogues, several magazine spreads and published portfolios. The project investigates the seemingly remote community of Spiti as it engages with and embraces the potentials of the modern world: new technologies, satellite TV, education, tourism and digital communications. This latest exhibition of recent photographs including some in colour, addressed social change and modernity in addition to black and white work describing the more established village life, monastic communities, traditional healers and subsistence farming.

The author’s Spiti project evolves in terms of specific subjects, photographic approaches (colour, film-stock, format) and printing. Moreover, for each exhibition the selection of images responds to distinct thematic concerns and the special attributes of the gallery.

Variations of the Spiti images have appeared as “Documenting Spiti” at the Slovenian Festival of Photography (Fotopub); and as “Spiti The Forbidden Valley” at Circolo Tina Modotti (Italy), Gallery Profil (Slovakia), the Blue Sky Gallery (USA) and at the European Photography Festival. Catalogues accompanied the Chobi Mela, Profil, and the Blue Sky Gallery shows (2006, 2003 and 2002). Further selections were published in The Sunday Times (six pages), in Il Sopratutto, and Next Level (eight pages and text).