Stop stereotyping Khasis: Open letter to Shillong Photo Festival

I am writing to draw your attention to the work of photographer Karolin Kluppel who is featured as one of the photographers in the "Shillong International Photo Festival".

It came to my attention when it was recently featured in an Indian e-magazine titled Homegrown. I was deeply disturbed by the series, and the comments from viewers (which included 80 per cent of non-khasis) echo this, with remarks on how "staged", "exotic" and most disturbingly on how the series was "almost pornographic" in nature. There were several of us from the Khasi community who also commented. The post was then taken down with an apology from the moderators.

To see that this series is featured in the Delhi Photo Festival is not surprising, also to the extent that a photograph from the series form the main branding of the festival - a photograph of a Khasi girl with moths on her face makes a very beautiful image, no doubt. In Delhi - the Northeast and its people are still seen through the lens of the exotic and the violence. But to see the inclusion of this series in the Shillong International Photo Festival is deeply disturbing and disappointing.

People from the Northeast who live in the rest of India struggle to bridge misunderstandings and misconceptions of their identity on a daily basis. In some cases, racist attacks have resulted in death - the case of Nido Tania, the Northeast exodus in 2012, are among numerous such examples. In any case, continuing reports of such violence come in from across the country, in alarming frequency.

At the moment, the mega "Terra Madre" is taking place in Shillong, in which the culture of indigenous communities is being highlighted and celebrated, with the central theme being "The Future We Want". Shillong is increasingly becoming the hotbed of events and activities of national and international scale. This growth, especially set in the context of NER, is positive and encouraging.

How then does a photo festival, which is being organised by the mass communication department of a prestigious college, reach the decision to include a series by a photographer, who, as Ezra Rynjah says in his critique in Raiot.in:

"[The photographer, in other words,] falls into a trap of the confirmation bias mentioned earlier on and proceeds to exoticise, and more problematically, fetishise these girls for the sake of what she wishes to depict, for what she wishes to see."

There are others who have commented on this series, including Hester Keijser, founder of Stead Bureau, Netherlands: "Routinely we fall into the trap of 'What You See Is All There Is' - in other words, we take photographs and what the photographers tell us about the work, at face value, especially when a subject is rendered of which we don't know very much beyond what we are served up. That's why it is valuable to read critiques of people who are more informed about the subject - such as Ezra Rynjah's questioning if Klüppel's work indeed captures how matriliny impacts girls' behaviour."

By including this work by Karolin Klüppel in the Shillong Photo Festival, are you giving out the message that you agree with her representation of the community? There has been quite a bit of international press on this series and a cursory glance of these will reflect that no fact checking has been done on the details that the photographer has been sharing about the community, this includes The Washington Post, The New York Times and countless others. If you finally still continue to include her work in this Festival, will you also include representations from within the community?

I hope the organisers of the Shillong International Photo Festival consider some of these points. In this time in our country when writers, artists, filmmakers (with one from Meghalaya who has just returned his award in the last 24hrs) have come together in an unprecedented show of strength to stand up against the growing intolerance in India, I hope the organisers understand the important role that art and artists play, and that artistic freedom of expression does not exist in isolation but like all great things come with responsibility.

Mary Therese Kurkalang.