Through intimate portraiture of its diverse citizenry, the proud Goans, the new infusion of migrant labor and cosmopolitan influence of city folk, the faces become a living archive, a document of visual ethnography that charts an identity of a place caught in an incandescent friction of contemporary times.
Told through the lens of music, recurring imagery of musicians lead the viewer through this ‘photo rhapsody’ depicting Goan culture and community that continues to beat alongside the falling pitch of the fast shifting present.
From the melancholic strumming of a Fado, to the earthy beats of a Ghumot to the rise and fall of a conductor’s baton of a 100 member strong choral and string ensemble, Goa’s musical repertoire is as diverse as its people.
In the various faces and places one sees the coming together of disparate worlds. The slow, sustained notes of a kingfisher on an electric cable as the sun rises over Para’s paddy field yielding to the percussive, syncopated beat of a tattoo parlour in Vagator; the loud drumming of the traditional Dhol at Shigmo festival yielding to the more contemporary Lindy Hop dance socials are some among many that echo the dualities of Goa today, providing varied perspectives on the emotional timbre of Goa’s transformation.
The shifts in the tonality of Goan life, forces open a somewhat comforting realisation: while the physical characteristics of a land and its people may change inevitably and beyond one’s control and recognition, its fundamental spirit — its soul — can still persist through affective, acoustic and emotive qualities.
Facing Goa is an ode to this, the eternal soul.
About Ulka Chauhan
Ulka Chauhan lives and works between Bombay, Goa and Zürich.Her debut monograph, The Memory Keepers and Future Seekers, is a documentary style photographic exploration of Goan heritage homes that launched in 2024 at the Royal Opera House in Mumbai and at Sunaparanta Centre for the Arts in Goa; and since then at several cities across India and internationally in Lisbon at the Museu do Oriente.
She is currently working on her next book project, Facing Goa: A Photo Rhapsody, which explores the identity of Goa today.
Ulka’s work has won several international awards including PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris, International Photo Awards and Tokyo International Foto Awards. Her works have been presented at photo festivals in Venice, Treviso and Zürich. [Official Website]
