My first public display in Paris gets underway with my participation in a group show at the Paris-based Humathèque of Campus Condorcet, a facility devoted to the human sciences. 2023's display runs from September 27 until October 20.
This exhibition titled "Spatial Studies Facing Their Terrain," which draws attention to the terrain-related challenges that detailed documentation like mine entails. To highlight this I present at this show two images from my archive from Stakmo, a sizable rocky plateau in Ladakh. The image seen here features a boulder titled "Crouching Tiger' , also the literal meaning of Stakmo in Ladakhi language. This image is part of my night photography series of Ladakh's petroglyph sites. The second photograph (scroll below), a vast aerial panorama is made possible by stitching 36 individual pictures and highlights terrain related challlenges in the desertic landscape of Ladakh. In search of etched rocks on such plateaus in Ladakh, I have frequently spent hours upon hours walking by myself with my camera gear in tow. This was a difficult but enjoyable task for me to complete without GPS markers or maps, especially when I came across rocks like the Stakmo boulder (seen here).
My own indepth research on the subject will be available in my soon to be published book - 'Speaking Stones' - The Rock Art of Ladakh. My focus for this work has been on variety, distribution, and most importantly the artistic tenor of these petroglyphs. In order to inform the public about the importance of conservation as well as the archaeological significance of these sites, I will be showing this work via the lens of a photo artist in a solo exhibition. This exhibition will be under the aegis of the 'City of Paris' in 2024.
This panoramic aerial image, obtained with a drone and composed of 36 separate photographs, depicts the rock art site of Stakmo in India's transhimalayan region of Ladakh. The most significant challenge for members of the Himalayan Rock Art Database (HiRADa) and Ahtushi Deshpande, a professional Indian photographer documenting these sites has been uncovering locations in vast wastelands, especially given the harsh climatic conditions of this high altitude mountain terrain. These archaeological sites, now recorded in the hundreds, help track settlement patterns from the 3rd millennium BCE to the beginning of the second millennium AD.
Ahtushi Deshpande (born 1969) is a self-taught photographer and writer with a broad body of work and numerous honours. https://www.ahtushi.com/about-.... Her ten-year photo documentation project on Ladakh's rock art is culminating in the publication of a photo book titled "Speaking Stones - The Rock Art of Ladakh," which includes some never-before-published pictures in such high resolution. Her journalistic ability shines through in the accompanying narrative, which is backed up by careful research.
"I have used several photographic techniques to bring about the artistic tenor of this ancient art through the medium of art photography." As a documentarian, my considerable research sheds light on various intricacies of this imprint from both a scientific and an artistic standpoint. This independently sponsored initiative spanned ten years and 18 trips to the region. For me, the impression is proof of human ingenuity that has flourished regardless of material circumstances from prehistoric times and before the dawn of civilised society as we know it."
Ahtushi Deshpande