College/University: Thames Valley University
Course Level/Title: BA Photography & Digital Imaging
Date: 2008

“This series of prints by Nishant Shukla are portraits of travellers on the Himsagar Express – a three-day journey from the foothills of the Himalayas to Kanyakumari on the southern tip of India. The frontality of these images presents an honest exchange of views mediated by the camera. Nothing is hidden and there seems to be a mutual trust which dignifies the subject. There is in this work a studied avoidance of the sentimental or repressive gaze. Shukla modernises colonialist photography and invests it with a sympathetic and quiet restraint. The idea of a shared journey is what these pictures convey.” Peter Smith, 2009 www.nishantshukla.com

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