Lisangi and Dulusu Yobin wait indefinitely in the forests of Namdapha with their son
Untitled
Ngwalidew and the portal
Children explore the mythical forest
Children explore the mythical forest
Exodus- II
Three tea cups, father and the child
Triptych: Untitled
Exodus – I
Educational Qualifications
2009-10 MA Photojournalism, School of Media, Arts and Design, University of Westminster, London
2003-04 Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism, Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi
Academic experience
2016-present: Core faculty (Photography & Visual Communication), Sri Aurobindo Centre for Art & Communication, New Delhi
2020-present: Visiting faculty, Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi
2017-present: Visiting faculty, Delhi University, New Delhi
2012-2019: Visiting faculty (Photojournalism), Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi
Awards/Grants/Nominations
2019 Finalist, LensCulture Visual Storytelling Awards
2019 Winner, 2nd Prize, Creative Category, International PhotogrVhy Grant
2018 Winner, Feature Shoot Emerging Photographer of the Year
2021 Recipient, Air Toxicities Grant for An Elegy for Ecology, KHOJ Studio, New Delhi
2021 Recipient, Environmental conservation grant for An Elegy for Ecology, MurthyNAYAK Foundation, USA
2019 Recipient, Prince Claus & ASEF Fund
2018 Recipient, Photo Made Scholarship, Lucie Foundation
2017 Recipient, Arts Research Grant, India Foundation for the Arts
2020 Shortlisted, Copenhagen Photo Festival
2019 Shortlisted, Belfast Photo Festival
2019 Shortlisted, Athens Photo Festival
2018 Shortlisted, Athens Photo Festival
2018 Shortlisted, Emerging Artist of the Year Scholarship, Lucie Foundation
2018 Shortlisted, Voies Off Awards, Rencontres d’Arles festival, France
2017 Shortlisted, Photo Made Scholarship, Lucie Foundation
2017 Nominee – Culture, International PhotogrVhy Grant
Art commissions:
2021 National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA), Taiwan
Group Shows
2022 Imagined Documents curated by Ravi Agarwal (Serendipity Arts Festival), Les Rencontres d’Arles, Arles, France (scheduled)
2021 Phantasmopolis Curated by Nobuo Takamori and Ho You Kuan, Asian Art Biennale, Taiwan (upcoming)
2020-21 FRIN/GE curated by Shaleen Wadhwana, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
2020 Imagined Homeland curated by Arianna Rinaldo, PhEST, Italy (Aug’ 2020)
2020 Speculations on a New World Order curated by Anushka Rajendran, Shrine Empire Gallery, New Delhi (online)
2019 Imagined Documents curated by Ravi Agarwal, Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa, India
2019 Imagined Homeland, OBSCURA Festival of Photography, Penang, Malaysia
2019 Imagined Homeland, Month Of Photography Los Angeles, USA
2019 Imagined Homeland curated by Louise Fedotov Clements, FORMAT, Derby, U.K.
2018 Imagined Homeland curated by Boris Eldagsen, Indian Photography Festival, Hyderabad
2018 Imagined Homeland, Tblisi Photo Festival, Georgia
2018 Imagined Homeland, Voies Off Awards, Rencontres d’Arles festival, France (projection)
2018 Imagined Homeland – ‘Eyes on India’ by Eyes on Main Street Wilson, USA
2017 SCOPE: The Nepal Issue featuring Between Grief and Nothing curated by Rahaab Allana,Goethe Institute, Mumbai
2016 Between Grief and Nothing curated by Angela Berlinde, Econtros Da Imagem, Portugal
2016 Between Grief and Nothing curated by Rahaab Allana, Photo Kathmandu, Nepal
2016 SCOPE: The Nepal Issue featuring Between Grief and Nothing curated by Rahaab Allana, Goethe Institute, New Delhi
2012 I Get By, Diesel Art Gallery, Mumbai
2010 Crossing Currents, Ambika P3 Gallery, London
Solo Shows
2014 Rebuild Uttarakhand, by Oxfam India & DLF Foundation, New Delhi
2013 Rebuild Uttarakhand, by Oxfam India, DELL Art Gallery, Gurgaon
Select Artist Talks/Guest lectures
2020 Conceptual photography (two-month online lecture series), Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts & Communication, New Delhi
2019 Three-day lecture on Contemporary Indian Photography, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai
2019 Artist Talk – Imagined Homeland, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai
2019 Artist Talk— Imagined Homeland, a counterpose to the colonial anthropological representation of tribes, OBSCURA Festival of Photography, Penang, Malaysia
2018 Artist Talk –– ‘Fourth Pillar: India Journalism Week’, University of Chicago Centre, New Delhi
2018 Artist Talk Imagined Homeland, Lamakaan, Hyderabad, India
2018 Masterclass ‘Photography, Myth & Magic,’ Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi
2018 Artist talk — Imagined Homeland, Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts & Communication, New Delhi
2017 Masterclass ‘Exploring Alternative Storytelling,’ Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, N. Delhi
2017 Lecture — ‘Ways of Seeing,’ History and Genres of Indian Photography Course by Sanskriti Pratishthan and The Alkazi Foundation for the Arts, New Delhi
2017 Lecture — ‘State of Photojournalism’, Journalism Workshop for African Journalists at AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
2016 Artist talk — Between Grief and Nothing, Geothe Institut, New Delhi
2015 Speaker— Photography in Humanitarian Emergencies, World Vision India South Asia level Communications Workshop, New Delhi
2014 Two-day lecture on Documentary Photography & Human Rights, IIT Bombay
Publications
2021 Guest Editor: Conceptual Photography in India, Photo South Asia
2019 A Hundred Years of Solitude, Caravan Magazine
2019 Imagined Homeland, China Life Magazine
2019 Imagined Homeland, QUEST, Netherland
2019 Imagined Homeland, Vrij Netherland
2018 Imagined Homeland, Indian Quarterly
2015 A Man’s Best Friend, Fountain Ink
Press Reviews/Interviews:
2021 Podcast interview, Art Dose
2020 Interview, Platform Magazine
2020 Speculations on a New World Order, Art Fervour
2019 Imagined Homeland, Lensculture
2019 Il sogno di una foresta magica, Sharbendu De, Internazionale
2018 FORMAT, British Journal of Photography
2018 12 Must-see exhibitions at the Indian Photography Festival by Ellyn Kail, FeatureShoot
2018 Magical Photos from an Isolated Community in India by Ellyn Kail, FeatureShoot
2017 Creative Treatments of Actuality- Can they be photojournalism?, Erik Vroons, Witness Magazine, World Press Photo
2017 Navigating Nepal, The Hindu
2016 Beyond Body Images, The Indian Express
2014 An Expression of Expressions, The Hindu
Selected workshops conducted
2017 Co-conducted six-day ‘Editing and Photobook Making’ workshop with Sanjeev Saith for MA Convergent Journalism, AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
2017 Five-day workshop on ‘Visual Storytelling and editing’ for MA Development Communication, AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
2016 Co-conducted five-day ‘Editing Storytelling’ workshop producing photobooks with Erik Vroons (Editor-at-Large, GUP Magazine), AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
2015 Five-day workshop on ‘Visual Storytelling and Photobook Making,’ MA Convergent Journalism, AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
2014 Five-day workshop on ‘Visual Storytelling and Book Making’ for MA Convergent Journalism, AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
Workshops attended:
2018 Photobook Making – philosophy and language by Dayanita Singh, Goa, India
2017 Hijacking Reality by Boris Eldagsen, Chobimela VII, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Sharbendu De (b. 1978, India) is a lens-based artist, academic, and writer. In 2018, Feature Shoot recognized De as an Emerging Photographer of the Year. De received grants from the India Foundation for the Arts (2017), Lucie Foundation (2018), Prince Claus Fund & ASEF (2019), MurthyNayak Foundation (2021) and KHOJ (2021). He was shortlisted for the Lensculture Visual Storytelling Awards (2019) and Lucie Foundation’s Emerging Artist of the Year Scholarship (2018) among other nominations.
His latest conceptual series An Elegy for Ecology (2016-21) dealing with the subject of climate change and human position in the anthropocene, premiered at Phantasmopolis at the Asian Art Biennale, Taiwan (2021). His former conceptual series Imagined Homeland (2013-19) on the indigenous Lisu tribe from Arunachal Pradesh has received critical appreciation.
De has exhibited across Asian Art Biennale, Taiwan (2021), Vadehra Art Gallery (2020-21), SHRINE EMPIRE Gallery, New Delhi (2020), PhEST, Italy (2020), FORMAT, U.K. (2019), Serendipity Arts Festival, India (2019), OBSCURA, Malaysia (2019), MOPLA, Los Angeles (2019), Voies Off Awards, Rencontres d’Arles Festival, Arles (2018), Indian Photography Festival, India (2018), Tblisi Photo Festival, Georgia (2018), Goethe-Institut (Mumbai & Delhi; 2016 & 2017), Photo Kathmandu (2016), Econtros da Imagem, Portugal (2016) and Diesel Art Gallery, Mumbai (2012) among others.
He has an MA in Photojournalism from the University of Westminster (2010), London, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (2004), New Delhi. He taught photojournalism at AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia (2011-18), and presently teaches photography and visual communications at Sri Aurobindo Centre for Art & Communication, New Delhi, among several other institutions. He also writes on the subject alongside his art practice. De lives in New Delhi.