GEORGE TOWN, Aug 19 — This 28-year-old Indian national was about to pursue a doctorate in theoretical sciences when he suddenly decided to change course and explore the field of contemporary photography.
After earning his Masters in theoretical physics and engineering and a Masters in pure mathematics, Arko Datto switched to photojournalism at the Danish School of Journalism in Aarhaus, Denmark, last year because he wanted to find ways to tell stories.
He has a passion for exploring ways to tell his stories through digital art and contemporary photography.
Arko was nominated for the Joop Swart Masterclass 2013 and 2014 and his work Of Colour, Sleep and Dreams” won the Award of Excellence at the POYI Awards 2014.
His work Cybersex, which was shown at Obscura Festival here last year, was also shortlisted in the People category of the Sony World Photography Awards 2014.
This year, Arko is back at Obscura Festival 2014 to showcase his work titled Crossings, which will be at ChinaHouse until August 31.
Here, the emerging artist shares the story behind his work and what made him take up contemporary photography and digital art.
In his own words:
I studied science and engineering in Paris. I have a Masters in Mathematics and a Masters in Physics. Last year I did a photography course in Denmark. I’m interested in how I can bring a scientific viewpoint, or the philosophy of the sciences, the analytical way of doing things into the arts. So my projects are like that. They have a scientific kind of feel to it.
I’m always searching for new ways of telling stories. I don’t see myself as a photojournalist or documentary photographer which is what most photographers are. I love it but it’s not my full identity. So Crossings is a very abstract way of telling about human rights issues.
I kind of think of myself as doing contemporary art that includes photography, not just photography. So I’m more like a digital artist, that’s how I see myself.
I essentially work with social issues or issues which are important global phenomenon to me. That’s kind of my focus. But I also do work with the camera, including very personal projects of my life and also social work on social issues, migration and homelessness. I work with migration issues because I spent many years as a migrant. Anything related to migration is kind of my focus.
I’ve been doing photography seriously, full-time, professionally for two years. And this project, Crossings, was done last year, I worked full time and was fully dedicated to it for about two months, formulating the project, actualising it.
Crossings is a project on human rights violations and migration issues. It’s about migration and human rights issues in the Gulf region... So, it’s about the migration of people from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines to find a better life, to work in the Gulf states. But they are cheated and find they are in slavery conditions. This is like 21st century modern day slavery where their passports are taken away, they are made to live in degrading conditions, a lot of people together in a room, they are not given food, they are not allowed to leave, they are not paid on time, they are not allowed to leave the country.
It’s not your usual photography project, in the sense that the images have been made with the use of Google map and Google earth. So, I’ve been searching for images on Google earth and I’ve taken images which represent the civilisation that has been made in the Middle East. By the help of these people, they’ve constructed civilisations, the roads, the buildings. And so it’s a project using these images.
There is text with each image. The text are personal anecdotes of these people who have suffered human rights violations in the Middle East. That includes workers, construction labourers, women who went for domestic work but were victims of sexual abuse, physical abuse.
So, it’s a mixture of images and the writings that makes a narrative out of these images. The images are forlorn landscape pictures from Google earth so it’s very personal. Since it’s being done using the Internet, we did not want to make a print exhibition so we did a projection to keep up with the theme of Internet photography. The installation is going to happen on this wall (a small room in ChinaHouse), images will be projected from that room.
I’m developing a cities project. It’s a study of the cities that I’ve lived in. So, I stayed 4½ years in Paris. Trying to sort of capture the city with my visuals. That’s the first city. The second city is Denmark where I stayed for a year last year. I stayed there and I documented the city and my personal experiences there. I’m thinking of doing a story on Penang. I don’t know. I like this place a lot so maybe I’ll do something in Penang. So, it’s like a trilogy of stories like in films. My work is mostly black and white for this. I work a lot with the nights so most of my photography is done during the night. I’m very intrigued by the night so I’m always doing things at night.
