Goa’s first photography festival

Are you off to India anytime in the very near future, going to Goa? There is a photography festival being held there for the first time, Goaphoto runs from 25 February to 7 March. I found information about the festival on the Guardian website , unfortunately the website for the festival is still partly under construction and there isn’t very much to see there but from the Guardian and Anu Anand we get some information and pictures, here you go

India through a lens: the nation embraces photography as art: For a country so rich in imagery, India has been slow to embrace photography as art. The nation’s first photography festival was held only four years ago, in New Delhi, and since then other cities have followed with their own exhibitions. Goa, although better known for its cheap beach holidays, soft drugs and hippie lifestyle, is due to hold its first festival next month in Ucassaim, Bardez Goa, showcasing more than 75 photographers from India and beyond…..

The Emergence, 2012: a young slum dweller caught in an accidental, glamorous shaft of light. Photograph: Prateek Dubey

Some photographs bear witness to disappearing traditions, from Mumbai’s trademark Fiat Padmini taxis, which have plied the streets for a century, to the endangered Buddhist tribe of Phaneng, in the easternmost corner of India’s Assam state. Yet the most memorable, perhaps, are those images that capture the extraordinary humour, irony and tenderness of everyday life – not least Mahesh Shantaram’s photo of a group of identically dressed political functionaries in Trivandrum, feverishly campaigning on their mobile phones.

The Nehruvian Dream: feverish ­campaigning on ­mobile phones during the 2014 national elections. Photograph: Mahesh Shantaram

Polaroid Composite – India Portrayed. Photograph: Manoj Jadhav

From the series Goodbye Padmini. Photograph: Aparna Jayakumar

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