Introspecting The New Paradigms In Photojournalism Of The Folk Communities By Partha Seal
– Afreen Kraipak Khyriem


The oeuvre of the photojournalist Partha seal is perceptive to the documentation of folk communities, livelihood, and interaction of rural with the encroachment of urbanization. he is a photojournalist and a videographer who resides in malugram, silchar. he had produced and documented several video documentaries for doordarshan, silchar. these documentaries include women’s education during the British Period and the impact of terrorism around Barak Valley,1992. he first began his career in 1986 assisting in video documentations of the North east region particularly haflong. simultaneously, he invested in his new passion for photojournalism using the reel camera and currently, he is a chief assistant director at PPC North east.


The most intriguing project undertake till present is the documentation of the folk communities at the Barak Valley, silchar, assam. For this project, he was awarded best photojournalist by the Itkhola athletic Club in 2017. his photographic sensibility captures the life of the folk communities in constant momentum and fleeting, socially progressing and always preoccupied in economic activities and new consumerisms. this sensibility is far progressive in its methodology and approach when juxtaposed to the exotic representation of the folk communities. as a photojournalist who belongs outside the folk communities, an important question arises, as to, how the ‘other’ (in this case the folk communities) is represented? how the photographer chooses to represent the ‘other’ will reflect upon how the final viewer/ spectator will perceive and consume the identity of the community itself.