Views on the 4th: Deepali Dewan

Based on the premise that assembling an archive is also an act of taking it apart, Deepali Dewan will talk about her curatorial work building an Asian photography collection at the ROM and the various projects that have come out of it. The collection explores the practice and evolution of photography in India through key photographers, images, styles, technological advances, and other important “moments” in its evolution, including its gaps, unknown photographers, and histories that cannot be recovered.

An art historian with a special interest in the visual cultures of South Asia and its diasporas, Dewan will highlight her current research interests, focusing on the history and theory of photography, as a way to explore the intersections of image-making, colonialism and modernity.

Deepali Dewan is the Dan Mishra Curator of South Asian Art and Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum and an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. She is the author of books and articles on photography and India and, most recently, the Lead Curator of The Family Camera exhibition.