| Waswo X. Waswo | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Richard John Waswo |
| Born | 13 November 1953 Milwaukee, USA |
| Field | photography, writer |
Waswo X. Waswo (13 November 1953), is an artist and writer most commonly associated with his chemical process sepia-toned photographs of India, and also hand-colored portraits made at the artist’s studio in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Waswo’s first major first major book, India Poems: The Photographs,[1] was in part a challenge to politically correct notions of the western artist's role in responding to Asia, and his work has been critiqued[2] in the light of cultural theories that stem from Edward Said and his book Orientalism.
Waswo was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A. He studied at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, and later at Studio Marangoni, the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Florence, Italy.[3] After extensive worldwide travels he settled in India in 2001, where he organized an exhibition of his Indian landscapes and portraits with the help of Alliance Française, Kashi Art Gallery, and Cymroza Art Gallery. The exhibition, called "India Poems", traveled to Cochin, Bangalore, Bombay, Udaipur and Goa, and also traveled internationally to Colombo and Kandy in Sri Lanka. "India Poems" culminated in a showing at The Haggerty Museum of Art in the artist's hometown of Milwaukee.[4]
Waswo's sepia work has been compared[5] to early 20th century photographers such as Edward Curtis, but his inclusion of self-portraiture sometimes draws analogies to postmodernists such as Cindy Sherman. Waswo's work has encouraged debate on the ethical questions of photography, especially the question of a westerner's role in photographing a foreign land. The Indian writer and cultural theorist Ranjit Hoskote makes a strong defense of Waswo's work in the foreword to India Poems, but also included in the book is an essay by Bangalore-based artist Pushpamala N. titled "Photographing the Natives" which claims that Waswo follows in a long tradition of hegemonic and largely negative western depictions of the East.
Waswo's India Poems exhibitions and book were widely written about in India.[6] An article by Curtis Carter eventually appeared in The International Yearbook of Aesthetics titled "Invented Worlds: India Through the Camera Lens of Waswo X. Waswo"[7]
Since India Poems Waswo has created a series of studio portraits at his home in Udaipur, Rajasthan, following the tradition of Indian studio portraitists such as those done by Lala Deen Dayal. Waswo has collaborated with Rajesh Soni, a local craftsman who hand-paints Waswo's digital prints. A portion of this new body of work has been published as the book Men of Rajasthan by Serindia Contemporary in Chicago.[8] Waswo also has collaborated with the miniaturist painter Rakesh Vijay to create an autobiographical picture-story of his life in India and the accompanying emotions of both alienation and the sense of western privilege. Waswo’s collaborations with Rajsh Soni and R. Vijay are collectively titled "A Studio in Rajasthan" and have been written about by London-based art critic Edward Lucie-Smith.[9]