— At the Excellence Award selection meeting, you said while looking at the entries you wanted to produce a sample book. Did you want to underline the point that entrants should submit books they edited themselves?

Absolutely, yes. I wanted all the entrants to get themselves wholly involved in the editing process. I saw so many entries that were formatted like portfolios. That's plain wrong. I wanted them to contemplate about the editing, the arrangement, the sizes, and all the other details, and then submit their work.

— Can you tell me about your first experiences with photography?

I was raised with photographs. My mother was always taking photographs of the family. Cameras and photographs were nothing special.

I decided to become a photographer when I turned 18. I believed that by becoming a photographer, I could escape the many social expectations I was under. The prevailing mindset back then in India in the 1980s was that women had to get married and bear and raise children. For me, becoming a photographer was the only way of gaining my freedom, escaping those constraints and being able to set off on a trip like anyone else.

— Are there any other Japanese writers or artists who have influenced you?

In terms of someone related to photographic expressions, the most important is “In Praise of Shadows” by Junichiro Tanizaki. The theories on photography of Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes are said to be among the most important in the world, but I think people should read “In Praise of Shadows” first. And then I would recommend Rilke's “Letters to a Young Poet”. The first letter is especially important.

— You have said repeatedly that photography is a language.

I came to Japan this time to judge this contest, and what I realized is we should free ourselves more from conversations about photography. If you have 20 prints, or 50 photo books, or a work of 2,000 pieces, what meaning does it have? Today I was able to take 2,000 photographs in this place. But what I really must do is broaden the conversation further. Photography is a language. What will you do using this language? That's the fundamental point.

— That's no simple task, is it?

Bear in mind that art is definitely not easy. That's because you have to discover your own voice. You can't sing a song by borrowing someone else's voice. Of course, there's no guarantee even once you've found your own voice that people around you will like your voice.

I created the “Museum Bhavan” series to put in my own home. At the time, I didn't imagine galleries the world over would collect it. It never crossed my mind whether anyone would like it. In truth, at first no one cared for this work with the appearance of a portable museum. People even told me: “They're wonderful photographs. But why don't you decorate the walls with them instead of doing it that way?” The process of becoming an artist is a very lonely and painful experience. It certainly wasn't easy for me, because I was going in a direction I thought was new.

People working with photographic expressions should understand the importance of going outside the realm of photography and then returning to it again. It's crucial to study and experience literature, film, and architecture and then incorporate that in photography.

I'm talking about very complex things, but I want to say to everyone what's complex stays complex. Because art is not simple.