Tate Photography series #04: SHEBA CHHACHHI

This powerful book examines the work of photographer Sheba Chhachhi. Interweaving the mythic and the social, her work, as she puts it, ‘is really about opening up a conversation, in the process of creating as well as sharing, to invite people to think about personal, social and public concerns, primarily around feminism and ecology.’

The powerful photographs reproduced here are selected from three major series, co-curated with her subjects . Seven Lives and a Dream spans decades of engagement with, and participation in, the feminist movement. Initiation Chronicle (from Ganga’s Daughters) reveals the lives of a group of women sadhus (religious renunciates): each woman in the series subverts conventional assumptions about gender, sexuality, domesticity and female piety. In the 1990s, Chhachhi was one of the first female photographers to photograph women in conflict-ridden Kashmir, resulting in The Green of the Valley is Khaki.

Sheba Chhachhi is a photographer, women's rights activist and an installation artist. Based in New Delhi, she has exhibited her works widely in India and internationally, transforming pressing contemporary issues into compelling, evocative works of art.

‘I have always been drawn to ‘odd’ women. I feel an affinity, a resonance with women who don’t fit the norm – perhaps recognising aspects of myself – and this is reflected in my photographic work.’ – Sheba Chhachhi

Beatriz Cifuentes Feliciano is Assistant Curator, International Art, at Tate.

The Tate Photography Series is a celebration of international photography in the Tate collection and an introduction to some of the greatest photographers at work today.

With the direct involvement of living photographers in collaboration with photography curators, these books showcase the best and most notable images taken across the globe, from city streets to seashores, moving across landscapes and through subcultures, in a visual travelogue of our world. By showing varied and international approaches to a subject, the series seeks to create a deeper understanding of what photography can do while also enhancing our appreciation of the lives of others.

Each book contains a new conversation between curator and photographer and is prefaced with a short introduction.e.

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