Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Art Grant for Photography | Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation

Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Art Grant for Photography 2015 Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation

UMRAO SINGH SHER-GIL GRANT FOR PHOTOGRAPHY Instituted by the Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation   The Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation (SSAF) shall carry forward the legacy of scholar and photographer Umrao Singh Sher-Gil (1870–1954); his daughter and a pioneering figure of modern Indian art, Amrita Sher-Gil (1913–1941); her nephew and niece, artist Vivan Sundaram, and documentary filmmaker and television journalist Navina Sundaram. SSAF, set up in the year 2015, is guided by a consciousness of the moment in history at which it comes into being. It seeks to enable conjunctions of artistic and cultural practice that deal with historical memory and build expectations for the future. SSAF commits itself to advancing creative independence: for art that is founded on freedom of expression, that is secular and non-sectarian, cosmopolitan and internationalist. ABOUT THE GRANT Recognizing the need to enable Indian photographers to produce and share their work in their lifetime, the Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation has pledged an annual photography grant of INR 5,00,000 in Umrao Singh’s name to encourage independent voices in photography. Established in 2015, the first Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Grant for Photography will recognize a photographer’s exemplary commitment to the staged or constructed image. Documentary photography projects using the idiom of the staged or constructed image will also be considered. The grant is intended to assist photographers who have started a project and need financial help to complete their work. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA The grant is for photographers who are Indian nationals and residing in India. There is no age limit for applicants to the grant. The grant is for individual photographers; collaborative or group applications will not be considered. The grant is for a photographer already working on a project. Therefore, the application must include photographic prints from the proposed project to complete which a grant is needed. Applicants to the grant must not hold any other fellowship/grant for the proposed work. There is no limit to the number of times applicants may apply for the grant. The applicant has to agree to finish his/her project within 18 months of receiving the grant. JURY 2015 The members of the jury for the first Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Grant for Photography, in the year 2015, are: Urs Stahel (Chair), Jeroo Mulla and Devika Daulet-Singh. URS STAHEL is an independent curator, writer, lecturer and consultant based in Zurich, Switzerland. A co-founder of Fotomuseum Winterthur, he was its Director and Curator from 1993 to 2013. Since 2013 he is Curator of MAST (Manufattura di Arti, Seperimentazione e Tecnologia) in Bologna, and a consultant of the MAST collection of industrial photography. He is a Lecturer at the Art Academy in Zurich in the autumn of 2015, and Guest Professor at the University of Zurich. JEROO MULLA was the Head of the Social Communications Media Department at Sophia Polytechnic, Mumbai, from 1986 to 2012. She taught Film and Photography, and supervised student documentaries at Sophia Polytechnic for over thirty years, and continues to teach there as visiting faculty. She has also been visiting faculty at several other institutions including St. Xavier’s College and St. Xavier’s Institute of Communications, Mumbai and Symbiosis Institute of Communications, Pune. DEVIKA DAULET-SINGH established Photoink in 2001 as a photo agency and publication design studio, based in New Delhi. In 2008 Photoink expanded into a gallery to exhibit contemporary Indian and international photographers. Her engagement with the world of photography has been as an editor, curator and publisher of photo books. The Jury Chair is supported by Pro Helvetia – SWISS ARTS COUNCIL The Application Form can be downloaded from www.ssaf.in or obtained by emailing atusg@ssaf.in. There is no application fee. The deadline for reciept of the completed application form is 30th November 2015.