Lives of Extraction in Singrauli

• Photographer
  Payal Kakkar, India
• Category
  Asia
• Website
  http://www.payalkakkar.in/
• Instagram
  https://www.instagram.com/payaldewankakkar/

Singrauli is India's Energy capital active coal mining site and aggressive timber industry. It's also home to indigenous (Adivasi) people. The extractive and exploitive systems established in the colonial period have continued in the present at an expanded scale.Breaches in the fly-ash landfills, byproduct of thermal power plant, flood villages and homes. Compensation from industry and government is little and suicide rates among Adivasis are high.This is an active situation: in 2020 the government auctioned new mining parcels to private corporations, more than half of them in protected areas.

I am a self-taught photo artist from India who blurs the lines between documentary and art photography. Exploring themes from architectural heritage to landscape and environment conservation, my work focuses on color, line and form to make an emotional connection with the viewer. Having specialized in garbage treatment processes, I use my photographic practice as a way to have a more immediate impact on conservation efforts. My environmental photographs focus on landscapes impacted by human activity, exploring the impact of extraction and over-consumption on the communities who live there.

Awards My film, 'Requiem of a Mangrove Forest' was selected to be screened as a 'Special Presentation' at International Film Festival of India 2024, Goa. Her work has been recognized by the Earth Photo 2025, Tokyo International Foto Awards 2024 and 2023, Prix de la Photographie de Paris, Indian Photo Festival 2022 and Budapest International Foto Awards 2022. It was the finalist for the Chennai Photo Biennale 2022 Iyarkai Grant and for the 'State of the World' Paris Photo Prize (PX3), Sienna Drone Awards in 2021 and 2022.