In a digital age where everyone is a photographer, acclaimed interdisciplinary artist and Magnum Photos member Sohrab Hura voices a more pressing concern: the erosion of trust in images due to artificial intelligence. As his dual exhibitions, 'The Forest' and 'A Winter Summer,' unfold at Experimenter gallery in Kolkata, Hura reflects on a career that seamlessly blends photography, painting, and sound to probe personal and political narratives.
Navigating Mediums: From Photography to Painting
Sohrab Hura's artistic practice defies rigid categorization. He moves fluidly between photography, painting, video, and sound, viewing them as interconnected tools for storytelling. For Hura, photography was never about a specific style but a versatile medium to express diverse ideas. "I was always interested in the storytelling part of the process," he explains.
His recent foray into drawing and painting has given him a new appreciation for photography's unique demands. He notes that photography requires immense endurance, involving the creation of countless images to distill a final few. In contrast, the editing in drawing often happens simultaneously with the act of creation. He describes documentary photography, in particular, as "a way to see the world," a process that thrusts him into unfamiliar environments and fosters continuous learning.
Personal Narratives and Sociopolitical Inquiry
Hura's work is renowned for weaving intimate personal stories with broader sociopolitical commentary. Early in his career, he sought an objective distance, but later found more value in creating work that allows for "leakages" and room for doubt. This shift made his art more metaphorical, sometimes casting himself as a protagonist, as seen in his book The Coast, where he appears as the "idiot photographer" critiquing embedded violence in image-making.
This sensibility carries into his current exhibition, 'The Forest,' which features paintings of a Delhi city forest alongside scenes from a hospital. For Hura, the forest is not just a physical space but a fluid state of being, connected to the wider world. Similarly, 'A Winter Summer' juxtaposes two contrasting bodies of work: Snow, from winters in Kashmir, and The Song of Sparrows in a Hundred Days of Summer, from the scorching heat of Barwani, Madhya Pradesh.
He began photographing in Barwani in 2005, initially focusing on themes of employment. Over years of return visits, his focus softened to capture the invisible, palpable essence of the summer heat. His Kashmir work emerged from a desire to move beyond tourist spots, allowing the series to develop intuitively over repeated visits without the pressure of a predefined project.
The AI Dilemma: A Crisis of Trust for Images
When asked about the modern phenomenon of ubiquitous photography, Hura's concern lies elsewhere. "I'm more worried about the growing presence of AI and what it does to the trust that we have for images as an audience," he states emphatically. He warns that we must now deal with the "havoc of doubt and confusion" that AI-generated imagery will unleash.
However, he finds a sliver of hope in this crisis. He believes a photograph is a "residue of a much larger human process." As AI images proliferate, he anticipates a tipping point where audiences will start to value and recognize the human experience and intent behind a genuine photograph. In this context, if everyone is a photographer, it signifies a continued engagement with that human process.
Echoes of the Past and Seeking Lightness
Looking back at earlier projects like Life Is Elsewhere or Bittersweet, Hura sees clear connections to his current work. Long-time observers note that his recent drawings and paintings recall the spirit of his early photographs. He attributes this to a return to "meandering"—a loose, curiosity-driven approach he employed when learning photography.
As India's political landscape shifted around 2008-09, Hura felt a growing sense of responsibility, which sometimes overshadowed that lightness. With his current drawings and paintings, he is consciously seeking to reclaim that "silly-ness" and open-ended exploration. This, he believes, is essential for surviving as an inspired artist. His journey remains a delicate balance: "how to work with everything at stake but with nothing to lose."
Sohrab Hura's exhibitions at Experimenter in Kolkata, running from early January 2026, present a compelling view of an artist continually evolving, using multiple mediums to question, reflect, and navigate a world where the very truth of an image is under technological siege.
