Expanding the Documentary: In Conversation with Ashfika Rahman

Ashfika Rahman from Bangladesh studied photography at the Hochschule Hannover, Germany and at the Pathshala (South Asian Media Institute) in Dhaka, where she is now a faculty member. In the first episode of this two-part interview, we delve into her process as a documentary photographer and as an artist, examining the shifting boundaries between these modalities of practice. Through her various photographic projects, Rahman explores entrenched power structures and social hierarchies in different communities, especially those which have been marginalised and/or persecuted by the state. Recently, Rahman received the Stitching Screens—a new grant introduced by the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) and the Samdani Art Foundation (SAF) — for a project with the Indian artist Amol K. Patil. We shall discuss their plans for this collaborative effort in the upcoming second part of this interview. 

20 February 2021