Image as Witness: Portfolio Review with Palani Kumar

Image credit: M. Palani Kumar

A portfolio review session led by photographer and journalist M. Palani Kumar, founder of the People’s Photographers Archive, whose work documents the lives of working-class women and marginalized communities. The session offers an opportunity to explore how personal stories can be situated within broader societal narratives through visual practice, while engaging with the idea of “witness” in long-term documentary work. Drawing on projects spanning 8–9 years, it reflects on themes of caste violence, forced evictions, and environmental degradation, examining their impact on both ecology and the communities that depend on it. 

Participants are invited to present portfolios that engage with caste- and lineage-based narratives as lived experiences, and to consider how to document working-class lives, gender, and labour with sensitivity and accountability. Emphasizing ethical representation and storytelling from within communities, the session foregrounds the importance of centering and amplifying voices that are often marginalized or unheard. 

Please submit your portfolio on the form by May 10, 2026 9pm IST. 

This event is part of programming around Beneath the Turning Sky in collaboration with People’s Archives of Rural India (PARI)