Indian Memory Project
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The Indian Memory Project was founded in India, by Anusha Yadav (photographer and designer for the Memory Company) in February 2010. It is the world's first online narrative and image based archive that traces the history of the Indian Subcontinent using images and narratives as offered by families and individuals across the world. Indian Memory Project is a project in continuation and is an attempt to understand, in a unified way, the history of the subcontinent, its experiences, humanity, choices and its circumstances that have made the region and its people who they are. Indian Memory Project is dedicated to nurturing greater tolerance, understanding, cultures, love and capacity for learning among citizens of India, its neighbouring countries and the world.
Location
Anusha Yadav is based in Mumbai presently, from where she runs Indian Memory Project. Being an online archive, the memory project is accessible to anyone and everyone across the globe. It is an ongoing project with contributions coming from people living in and outside of India. There is no restriction regarding nationality and origin of the contributor or that of the family members in the contributed story, but it is crucial for the story to be in relation to the Indian Subcontinent.
About the Founder
Anusha Yadav is a Photographer, Photo archivist, Publication Designer and a Curator. She graduated in Communication Design from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad in 1997. After 16 years of a joyful career in graphic design and advertising, Anusha also began working as an independent photographer in 2006. Her works have been published and exhibited in India, Austria, Germany, China, UK, Singapore, South Africa & USA.
In 2010 she founded Indian Memory Project – The world’s first online visual & narrative based archive, to trace a personal history of the Indian Subcontinent through images found in family and personal archives. The project has been cited as exemplary and has pioneered an alternate method in which narratives of the world are told and understood.
In 2013, she founded The Memory Company, a consultancy that works on artistic, and curatorial projects, archives and exhibitions related to history, narratives and photography. Most recently the company curated its first international narrative and image based exhibit on historical criminal investigations from India – “The Photograph is Proof”, at the Format International Photography Festival, 2015 in UK.
About Indian Memory Project
“No matter what he or she does, or how long or short they live, everyone on this planet plays a central role in forming the history of the world”
Digital photography took over our lives post the early '90's, therefore Indian Memory Project accepts photographs and stories only prior to this time. It is not essentially about the end result of the contribution but more so about the process one goes through when digging into family archives to find special photographs that bring back old memories or stories that were shared during childhood. Today, a lot remains unknown when it comes to the history of the Indian Subcontinent, all we know is what our textbooks in school and college teach us - in other words, a cliched history of the subcontinent. India, diverse in every way. Innumerable languages, cultures, ethnicities and stories make this subcontinent what it is. Indian Memory Project makes an attempt to dive into the role played by individuals and families in forming the extraordinary history of the subcontinent.
Via photographs, contextualised narratives and letters found in personal archives, powerful stories are revealed highlighting various themes - social transformation, new professions, partition, education, war, marriage, religion, culture etc. and the impact they had on family's living during these times. With personal images serving as evidence, each post on the archive reveals valuable information about people, families & ancestors, cultures, lifestyles, traditions, choices, circumstances and thereby consequences. Indian Memory Project is a personal memory of the world – a sociological and photographic history, remembered, realised and experienced by its own people.
The latest additionto the website is a select list of must-read books carefully handpicked by the Memory Company on Subcontinental histories. This list will be updated every few weeks.
Letters of Love Project
Indian Memory Project is an ongoing archive. Every photograph is worth contributing, as every photograph reveals a unique story. Over and above the archive, the project is now on the lookout for notable and interesting, personal and not so personal handwritten/typewritten letters (including postcards). The project only accepts Photographs and Letters from before the Year 1991, the older they are the better. The project is a one of a kind crowd-sourced book on real Handwritten/Typewritten Love Letters received, sent or found – across countries, age groups, time, genders, race, creed and languages, written by hand or typewritten, before the era of computers, and before the year 2000. Entries are open to anyone in the world, with any nationality or region.
Archive Records
Indian Memory Project has received images from families and people based in Canada, USA, Ireland, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, United Kingdom and the oldest photograph is from 1860.
Awards
Winner, [Innovator of the Year] : India Today Woman Summit 2014. INDIA
Winner, [Online Influencer] : L’Oreal Paris Women Achiever’s Award 2013. INDIA
Honorary Mention [Digital Communities] : Prix Ars Electronica Award 2013. AUSTRIA
Citation
India’s Best Blogs (informational sites) 2013-2014India’s best blogs (informational sites) of 2012-2013 Presentation by renowned photo historian, Professor Christopher Pinney , Chobi Mela 2013
Mining the Public . Chicago. January 2014
History in the Making. Hindustan Times. January 2014
NY Daily News, December 19. 2013
The National Archives of India. Newsletter 2013
Top 10 Photography Blogs of India. 2015
On nostalgia. Economic Times – 2015. By Vikram Doctor
Click, Save, Forget : Times of India. April 2016
Publications
International
Telegraph UK April 30, 2010 The Indian Memory Project.
Gulf News, UAE Priyanka Sacheti, July 16, 2010 A First-Hand Look at history
Wall Street Journal Margherita Stancati, April 20, 2011 The Indian Memory Project
PHOTO Magazine by Fabien Charuau, Paris, France, March Issue 2012, Indian Memory Project
The Australian WSJ Content Desk, Sydney
Design Arts Daily, (DART) New York, February 17, 2012
BBC HINDI , October 20, 2013
New Yorker, USA . Instagram Take Over August 3-9, 2015. QUARTZ/HUFFINGTON POST/SCROLL
National
Hindustan Times. Anshika Misra, Assistant Editor March 13, 2010 Mumbai Edition. Memories, Online
Open Magazine. March 26, 2010 A Family Album of India.
DNA, March 27, 2010 Mumbai. Colours of Nostalgia
Deccan Chronicle. Bijoy Bharatan, April 25, 2010 Presenting the Past
Mumbai Mirror & Bangalore Mirror. Ankit Ajmera, January 23, 2011/January 30, 2011 A Secret History
Outlook India, April 11, 2011 Diachronic Lenses
Indian Express, Sharon Fernandes April 17, 2011 This used to be me
Economic Times, Deepika Sorabjee, May 2, 2012 Archiving through personal records with an interface like Facebook has made old worlds come alive
The Hindu, Geeta Padmanabhan, July 4, 2012 Portal to the past
Times of India, Bangalore, Shrabonti Bagchi August 4, 2012. The Record of Small Things
Verve Magazine, August 2012 Memoirs of a Nation
The History Workshop, UK, March, 2013
Guide to India, Italy. June 6, 2013
Indian Express July 2013
The Goan, November, 2013
Mid-Day, Gujarati Edition. November 2014
Hindustan Times, January 2014
'T'élérama, France. January 2014
Financial Express. by Kunal Doley. August 2014
Juice Magazine, Mumbai. 2014
Homegrown.in February 2015
Television
CNN-IBN– Video, June 13, 2012
NDTV – Video July, 2015
SCOOPWHOOP – Video
Talks
When Nations Remember, Singapore October 11-12, 2010 Speaker
The Art House, Singapore October 13, 2010
Open Show, New Delhi February 12, 2011
Fstop, Ahmedabad April 24, 2011
Delhi Photo Festival, New Delhi November 22, 2011, Speaker
INK Conference (in association with TED), Jaipur, December 9, 2011 Fellow Speaker (video)
United Arts Fair, Speaker New Delhi. September 29, 2012
D.Noise Design festival, Speaker Jaipur, January 25, 2013
INDIAAFRICA Festival, Johannesburg. South Africa May 15, 2013
Mind Scape Festival, Vashi, Navi Mumbai. December 7, 2013
Tedx Gateway, NCPA, Mumbai. December 8, 2013 [video]
Shows
Vadehra Gallery New Delhi. April -June 2011 Group Exhibition, “Something I Have Been Meaning To Tell You“.
Workers Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa. May 14-19, 2013
Lived Stories, Everyday Lives – Images from Private Collections across South-Asia. Chandigarh. July 2013 Group Exhibition (Punjabi)
Memorabilia, Curated by Lina Vincent. Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore. January 6 – February 22, 2014
Sensorium Fest, Goa. Curated by Prashant Panjiar – December 2014 -February 2015
The Photograph is Proof . Curated by Anusha Yadav/The Memory Company. Format International Photography Festival, Derby UK. March 12- May 17, 2015
Corporate Shows
Microsoft . Head office . Hyderabad. September 19, 2013
References
External links
- Official website
- The Memory Company
- Telegraph United Kingdom, 2010.[1]
- Gulf News, UAE 2010.[2]
- Wall Street Journal 2010.[3]
- The Herald, Pakistan. 2012.[4]
- BBC Radio Hindi 2013.[5]
- Telerama, France 2014.[6]
- Huffington Post /The New Yorker Instagram Feed 2015.[7]
- Hindustan Times 2010.[8]
- Open Magazine, India 2010.[9]
- Outlook, India 2011.[10]
- Indian Express, India 2011.[11]
- DNA, India 2011.[12]
- ^ "The Indian Memory Project". Telegraph.co.uk. 29 April 2010.
- ^ http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/oman/a-first-hand-look-at-history-1.653821
- ^ Margherita Stancati. "The Indian Memory Project". WSJ.
- ^ http://www.indianmemoryproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/magazinespread_low.pdf
- ^ "'ये दुनिया का इतिहास है, मैं तो बस इसे संजो रही हूँ'". BBC हिंदी.
- ^ "L'Indian Memory Project recompose la grande famille indienne". telerama.fr. 25 January 2014.
- ^ "New Yorker's Instagram Account Brings Alive Sepia-Toned Memories From India's Past". The Huffington Post.
- ^ https://indianmemoryproject.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/the-memory-project.jpg
- ^ "A Family Album of India". OPEN Magazine.
- ^ "Diachronic Lenses - Arpita Basu - Apr 18,2011". outlookindia.com.
- ^ "This used to be me". indianexpress.com.
- ^ http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report-preserving-bygone-era-through-photos-1538104
