The Role of The Artist in Today’s hyper Art World: A Conversation with Samar Singh Jodha

– Jyoti A. Kathpalia

Recently I had the good fortune of being in the presence of Reverend Tensin Palmo founder of Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in Himachal Pradesh. At a recent event, she talked about Creativity and the Ego. Essentially, she said that creativity is inherent in all humans but for a work of art to rise above the ordinary it has also to rise above the self and ego. Along with all art and creativity comes responsibility. She went on to take various examples of how the best art was self-effacing and not oriented towards commercial imperatives.


It was a response to higher imperatives. Today, when the new age mantra is money, how does an artist rise above the ego and commercial demands. How does one remain in this consumerist culture and still be true to his/her practice of art?

A portrait of an aged face and an innocent visage, each carved to perfection in the lens of the camera, looking as if they would suddenly materialize out of the surrounding darkness and each fine line would tremble and come alive to perfection in the frame of blackness, of nothingness, tantalized me. And I heard the faint echo:

These Photos are not about me, it’s about them and that’s really important…

The battle of being in a creative profession (an advertising photographer in those early years) is how to run a larger business and still maintain one’s style/ individuality, which is the key reason why one would get noticed/commissioned. But commercial photography also had its limitation for me, in being driven more by market trends and assignments, which didn’t serve any challenges but was mostly about that fat cheque.

I discovered, in my subsequent search, an individual who exemplified communitarian ethics in his numerous projects and workshops with the underprivileged and whose work was a reservoir of raw talent. Samar Singh Jodha is the embodiment of the creativity and the responsibility that I thought had ceased to exist in today’s consumerist society.

A photographer, filmmaker and installation artist Samar Singh Jodha, through the years, has used art and creativity to address vital issues in our society. Over the years, he has worked on a number of projects – Ageless Mind and Spirit which focused on the disappearing world of senior citizens, Express/Aspire a pro bono workshop(s) for the underprivileged children in Asia and Africa, a multimedia installation, Bhopal: A silent Picture on the Bhopal gas tragedy, Discord – to name a few. Samar is a TED speaker and on the CSR advisory board of various corporates and involved in various publishing projects. (samarsinghjodha.com)


Samar Singh Jodha lives in New Delhi, India. He is a prolific traveler.

Jyoti A. Kathpalia: Hello Mr. Jodha I am delighted to meet you. After seeing your profile, I am utterly amazed at your multifaceted personality. You have donned various hats. May I ask you how you began your journey? You started as a photographer and went into many directions from there. How did that happen?

Samar Singh Jodha: Well it’s been a blessed journey and a fast one. I started with my first camera at the age of 14 as a student on the foot-hills of Kilimanjaro. This was followed by little or not so long-term engagements including NID, with film/photography/ art schools in the US. But professionally it all began when I was in my early 20s. I packed my bags in Boston and moved to a city called New Delhi, as I wanted to get away from car/fashion shoots and do photography books. I spent my next two years in Jaipur, cooking a coffee table book (with Aman Nath) and my first book, Jaipur – The Last Destination came out, with amazing 5 feet long gatefolds setup (those analog days on film were very exciting for the photographer in me). So, I went with it to the Frankfurt book fair with the publishers. Then IB Taurus, St Martin Press decided to run it for US and UK markets respectively and it even won some national award in tourism.

I did another dozen books, some failed and one even took me to be a TED speaker. But soon I realized, most of these photo book projects are yet another section of my echo chamber. The book comes out, there is the press and the bubbly flows…sign few copies, do a few city exhibitions (maybe few prints sales), and finally if the book is lucky it will end up as a spine in a bookshop, or get crushed with new arrivals on top in those few hundred coffee tables in the living rooms of socialites.

I found myself in a space where I realized that photography for me was what I call a tent. The Photography Tent was basically people who were commissioning work, publishing, writing about it or collecting/ buying or curating galleries, all very focused on the photography network. I was not interested in going out there and just documenting a situation for the sake of documenting. That’s not to say that it shouldn’t be done.