CONVERSATION SERIES | Kushal Ray in conversation with Dayanita Singh and Ina Puri
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Date: 20 September 2025
Time: 5:00 PM onwards
Venue: KCC Amphitheatre
KCC presents a series of 2 conversations as a public-facing programme under No One is a Stranger (29 August - 20 September 2025) – an exhibition of works by noted photographer Kushal Ray.
The Photobook and its Subject: Looking Back at Intimacies | Kushal Ray in conversation with Ina Puri
Between 1998 and 2012, Kushal Ray documented the everyday life of a joint family in their 90-year-old home in Kolkata, which resulted in his most celebrated series – Intimacies. The project explored the complexities and nuanced social dynamics that played out in the 12-room house and was published by Niyogi Books as a photobook curated by Ina Puri alongside an essay by Kunal Basu. The first conversation of the day will feature Kushal Ray with writer, art curator, and collector Ina Puri, delving into this unique photobook.
The Artist and the Archive: An Intimate Conversation Between Dayanita Singh and Kushal Ray
Kushal Ray was the first recipient of the Dignity Grant awarded by eminent photographer and artist Dayanita Singh, while his book on Intimacies published in 2012 went on to be nominated for the Best Photobook Award at Le Bal des Débutantes, Paris by Singh in the same year. The closing session in this conversation series will feature Kushal Ray with Dayanita Singh, offering a closer look at their long association as they discuss the artist and the archive.
About the speakers:
Kushal Ray
Kushal Ray is a journalist-turned independent photographer and painter best known for his documentation of domestic life in Kolkata. Ray’s first solo exhibition, Everyday Life of an Exotic Land, was at Piramal Gallery, Mumbai in 1998. He was feted with a Senior Fellowship from the Ministry of Culture in 2011 for his documentation of the Indian Railways, which was published in the photobook Once on a Train while his book Intimacies was nominated for the Best Photobook award at Le Bal des Débutantes, Paris by Dayanita Singh in 2012. He showcased his work in Relative Values: Some Current Trends in India Photography in 2007, at the University of Southampton, UK; Click! Contemporary Photography in India, in 2008 at Vadehra Gallery in New Delhi and London; and a solo show and a talk at the British Museum in 2014, organised by the Royal Anthropological Institute. Ray has also taken part in multiple photography and art festivals, including the Singapore International Photography Festival, the Delhi Photo Festival and Chobi Mela in Dhaka. Kushal Ray lives and works in Kolkata.
Ina Puri
Ina Puri is a writer, biographer, art curator and collector. She has been curating major exhibitions with several institutions and galleries in India and elsewhere. Her decades-long engagement with the arts equally embraces tribal art and folk theatre as well as contemporary performing arts, visual arts and literature. She also advises museums/collectors across India on their art collection. Puri is also the author of several books, including In Black And White: The Authorized Biography of Manjit Bawa and Faces of Indian Art (with Nemai Ghosh), and has produced two National Award-winning films: Meeting Manjit (2002) and Antardhwani (2007). Yet, Kolkata (and, indeed, Bengal) has always been the beating heart of her work. She has edited a comprehensive volume on Raj Bhavan (Calcutta’s Raj Bhavan, Two Hundred Years of Glory), Raghu Rai’s Calcutta/Kolkata and On Satyajit Ray as well as several publications for Kolkata’s art galleries. Ina Puri has also collaborated with and mentored young artists from Bengal as well as worked closely with artists, galleries and curators in Bangladesh.
Dayanita Singh
Photographer Dayanita Singh's art uses photography to reflect and expand on the ways in which we relate to photographic images. Her recent work, drawn from her extensive photographic oeuvre, is a series of mobile museums that allow her images to be endlessly edited, sequenced, archived and displayed. Publishing is also a significant part of the artist’s practice: in her books, often made in collaboration with Gerhard Steidl, she experiments with alternate forms of producing and viewing photographs. Museum Bhavan, a collection of museums made by Singh, has been shown at the Hayward Gallery, London (2013), the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2014), the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (2014) and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi (2016). Singh has also authored twelve books: Zakir Hussain (1986), Myself, Mona Ahmed (2001), Privacy (2003), Chairs (2005), Go Away Closer (2007), Sent A Letter (2008), Blue Book (2009), Dream Villa (2010), House of Love (2011), File Room (2013), Museum of Chance (2014) and Museum Bhavan (2016).
