CHENNAI: The fifth edition of the photography exhibition at the Vaanam Art Festival, titled ‘Where the Songbird Resides’, concluded recently across three venues - Lalit Kala Akademi, Alliance Française of Madras and Sigma Gallery. Curated by Alina Tiphagne in collaboration with the Vaanam team, the exhibition asked a simple yet expansive question: what did it mean to locate a song not in sound, but in the conditions that made it possible?
The ‘songbird’ here was imagined as fleeting, heard but rarely seen, moving across geographic, emotional and political terrains. Instead of chasing the song, the exhibition turned to where it rested. Alina Tiphagne said the show engaged with a new wave of image-making emerging from historically marginalised communities. “It was about bringing in voices that are not often heard. The exhibition was less preoccupied with the song and more with the larger ecosystem, creating space for marginalised voices to come forward and exist in solidarity,” she said.
The exhibition featured 27 photographers from across the country, bringing together both established and emerging professionals. It reflected how visual aesthetics from the margins were increasingly entering the mainstream. “There are diverse voices. That is the drive, to see how culture, art and photography can be in conversation with the mainstream,” she added.
Photographer Vignesh Pavithran’s Dhobi Khana stood out for its portrayal of laundry workers in Purasaiwakkam. “If you look at our society, many trades have disappeared under the pressure of globalisation. For example, many standalone salons have moved into franchise models in metropolitan cities,” he said. Growing up in Chennai, he said he wanted to document such transitions. Reading ‘Koveru Kazhudaigal’ by Imayam prompted him to begin the project.
He spent three months documenting dhobi ghat workers across Washermanpet, Purasaiwakkam, Chintadripet and along the Adyar river. Many had been in the trade for over 60 years. In recent years, their work had declined with the rise of app-based laundry services and most workers were now over 50 or 60.
“I spent three months documenting their work and life. They are deeply connected to their work. Their approach is very pure and they depend entirely on this work,” he said. He added that documenting their lives could help future generations understand that such a community existed.
Vignesh also said that the curators, Jaisingh Nageshawaran and Alina, had been supportive. “This was a great opportunity and exposure for a photographer. The way Jai anna designed my work was unique and connected to the core theme,” he said.
Another photographer, Swapnil Shakya, presented ‘Sweet Dreams Are Made of This’, focusing on sugarcane cutters from Maharashtra’s Marathwada region. Each year, families migrated across India, often to southern states, in search of work. “Every year, thousands of Bahujan families from the drought-prone Marathwada region of Maharashtra migrate across India to work as cane cutters. Driven by debt, drought and lack of employment, they spend six to seven months in temporary shelters near the fields where they work,” he said.
According to him, these workers endure long, exhausting days, 12 to 15 hours, under informal labour arrangements with little security or fair wages. “The burden falls heavily on children, many of whom drop out of school and enter the same cycle of labour. While sugar travels far beyond the fields to homes across the world, the lives of the workers who produce it remain largely invisible,” he added. This ongoing photography project documents the lives of migrant sugarcane cutters whose labour sustains one of India’s largest agro-industries. These images reflect how seasonal migration and exploitative labour structures have shaped the present and future of these communities.
Across the exhibition, questions of identity, migration and belonging emerged. The works positioned photography as an act of presence, of witnessing, framing and questioning who gets to represent whom.