Conversations Between Changes
2024
Each spring, Kashmir, one of the world’s most militarised and politically contested region returns with its contradictions: blossom and unpredictability, illumination and erasure.
The capital city, Srinagar, carries a visible transformation.
In 2017, Srinagar was reframed by the state as a ‘smart city.’
Electric buses now move through manicured boulevards, floodlights crown Takht-e-Sulaiman hill, and tricoloured Indian flags mark the streets as signs of progress.
This project examines the dissonance between these polished surfaces and the quieter shifts unfolding inside a home that is slowly emptying.
As public space is redesigned, private spaces absorb change more silently.
Beneath the bright lights and the slogans, the occupation remains ambient and persistent.
The cracks are not always visible, but they endure.
Shot on medium format film and processed in the city, the material artefacts of this process are retained within the images.
The work moves between night-time city scapes to daylit home interiors, highlighting the visual differences and conceptual similarities.
KEEPING WATCH
2021-
Eat till you burst, yes.
I’ll be on the lookout
I’ll watch lives infest
I’ll look hard at the disease spread
I’ll see the scavengers rip your flesh apart
no need to worry
I’ll
be on the lookout
taking proper care
don’t worry
I promise I’ll be keeping watch.
I’ll be on the lookout
I’ll watch lives infest
I’ll look hard at the disease spread
I’ll see the scavengers rip your flesh apart
no need to worry
I’ll
be on the lookout
taking proper care
don’t worry
I promise I’ll be keeping watch.
From an ongoing project (2026)
A Good King Hides Well
2021-
A good king is not a magician, neither is he a watchman.
A good king is only a servant. Of biological birth. A good king does not discriminate. He never boasts.
A good king does not need credit.
He is secure. He hides well.
ishaansinghmehta@gmail.com
Ishaan Singh Mehta (b. 2002, New Delhi) works across photography, moving image, text and sound.
Based between New Delhi and Kashmir.