Explorations in gender, storytelling, and societal change.
Projects & Reportage
Non-Fiction Graphic Reportage: NRC Columns
Image from:
Singh, Parismita. ‘NRC Sketchbook: As Court And State Haggle Over Documents, Assam Prepares For A Season of Appeals And Objections’. Huffington Post India. 10/23/2018
Graphic Reportage or Slow Journalism in This Era of Constant News Cycles
In 2018, I began an assignment for the Huffington Post (India) to do a series of graphic reportage pieces – or graphic non fiction essays – with text, commentary, interviews accompanied by sketches and visual art.
I would focus on current affairs and news in Assam, one of the Northeastern states on India. The region I would be reporting from has relatively less coverage within the Indian media and issues here perceived to be of ‘less interest’ to the rest of the country.
Using sketches to give a sense of the location and place where these stories unfold through their distinct geographies of river and small town Assam helps make the stories more accessible, of more interest to the reader inundated by news stories.
Images from:
Singh, Parismita. ‘NRC: This Graphic Novelist Sketches The Citizenship Test That May Render Millions In Assam Stateless’ Huffington Post India . 07/31/2018
Images from :
Singh, Parismita. ‘NRC: This Graphic Novelist Sketches The Citizenship Test That May Render Millions In Assam Stateless’ Huffington Post India . 07/31/2018 Parismita. ‘NRC Sketchbook: As Court And State Haggle Over Documents, Assam Prepares For A Season of Appeals And Objections’. Huffington Post India. 10/23/2018
Telling News Stories from Women’s Perspectives
A lot of my graphic non –fiction work focused on women’s narratives and opinions of the political and social events of the period. Whether it was the various points of view regarding the National Register of Citizens ( NRC) process, the India Pakistan tensions or elections. This allowed me to engage with worldviews of resilience and struggle, often otherwise ignored.
What does an ‘interview sketch’ for non-fiction imply? At its simplest, the drawing – the rendering, making seen – is a way of foregrounding voices that may be otherwise lost in the din of the market.
Image from:
Singh, Parismita. ‘India General Election 2019: Who Will Guwahati’s Women Vote For? We asked women vendors in Assam…’
Huffington Post India. 22.04.2019.
Using Graphic Narratives to Tell Stories That Are Underrepresented in Mainstream Media
The graphic narrative essays focused on locations and news stories of voices that are often ignored or under represented in media forms like TV news or newspapers. This included looking at the stories of women vendors and farmers and other marginalized groups, to reflect on issues of national interest such as elections and citizenship. This gave the reader a sense of the diversity as well as the challenges of a multi-ethnic democracy like India’s.
The Perspective from Rural Areas: How Information Works in Times of Crisis
Image:
Singh, Parismita. ‘How WhatsApp And Facebook Are Colouring Stories Of War In Assam Villages’ Huffington Post India.
December 2019.
Image from:
Singh, Parismita and Hussain, M. Shalim. ‘NRC Sketchbook: Ahead Of Deadline, One Final Rush For Inclusion In Assam’ . Huffington Post India. 08/30/2019
Ethical Questions of Visual Representation
How do we work with sketches and art works that communicate the horror and anguish yet protect the victim’s identities and self respect, especially in cultures where for instance, photographing women or scenes at a hospital may be insensitive and problematic?
Visual essays on non-fiction graphic narratives are increasingly being seen as ethnographic as well as non fiction tools, offering us newer and alternative modes of representation that takes into account questions of the ethics of gender sensitive visual ethics etc.