Honorable Mention / 2023 / Fine Art / Landscape

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

Shot using a drone, the salt pans of Sambhar Lake, Rajasthan,look like boundless fields of color. The flat forms of salt pans seem to puts an end to illusion and reveal the truth. Subtle changes of color, nebulousness, opacity, movement and structure assert drama and explore the most complex human emotions. It evokes a memory of Mark Rothko; Barnett Newman color fields works of abstract expressionism. The railway tracks remind of Newman zips and also British colonial control over salt production and its trade making it inaccessible to the poor; made salt an interesting subject for me to study.

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.