Meha Desai: Remembrance of Lost Time and A Place Underground June 29, 2011

Meha Desai is a freelance photographer and writer currently based in New York City. Meha’s photographic repertoire focuses primarily on social documentary work alongside more abstract, personal projects. In the past, her documentary work has looked closely at marginalized communities, such as the snake charmers in India and at environmental issues such as the effects of urbanization on the Yamuna River in New Delhi. She has worked extensively with leading non profit organizations such as Navdanya and the Craft Revival Trust. Since 2006, she has exhibited her work in Paris, London and New Delhi and in June 2011, will be showing her work at the New York Public Library, New York City.

The works shown at the NYPL include photographs from two previous series. The first, titled Remembrance of Lost Time, is based on Marcel Proust’s epic novel A la Recherche du Temps Perdue, and explores the concept of memory as a work of fiction itself. The second, titled A Place Underground, is based on the poem by Pablo Neruda of the same name and juxtaposes abandoned physical spaces with abandoned emotional and psychological spaces. The exploration of literature through photography has been a prevalent theme in Meha’s recent work.

http://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/draft-exhibition