Introducing two of our new residents for ‘Coriolis Effect : Currents across India and Africa’, an international residency exploring the political, social and cultural relationships between India and Africa : Juan Orrantia and Ethiraj Gabriel Dattatreyan.

Juan is a photographer and writer whose work captures the essence of places with rich histories, often of violence and revolution. His photographs combine the present as well as the memories of the areas he studies, documenting the struggle the people and place has seen. This gives a dynamic element to his still images, creating a piece of work which is more than just a visual stimulus.

Being a Colombian, he has worked there extensively, as well as in multiple other places like Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. He spent three years in the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg where he finished a post-doctoral research fellowship. He has also exhibited in Berlin, Colombia, and South Africa, and participated in group shows including the New York Photo Festival, Le Cube, Cape Town Month of Photography, Bonani Africa Festival of Photography, Ethnographic Terminalia. He has been published in books such as Anthropology and Art Practice, Hive, Iconos, Sensate, Fototazo, Foto8, and SBH magazine. Now he is in New Delhi, working with Khoj and documenting the connections between Africa and India.

Ethiraj Gabriel Dattatreyan is a visual anthropologist. He finished his PhD in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. His research in Delhi examined how the immigrant youth from Nepal, Nigeria, Somalia, and Afghanistan are assimilating into the developing city. As a part of this research, he made a documentary film called ‘Waiting Subjects : Cry Out Loud’ based on the Nigerian, Somalian, Cameroonian, Ugandan, Ivorian and Congolese settlement in Khirkee (Malviya Nagar). He worked with young residents of Khirkee; Hassan Abdi, Ahmed Ex, Young Hafes, Abdullahi Idris, and Abdul Abdulkhadir, who he brought on board to co-direct.

His focus lies on the migration of youth across borders and their lives in relation to popular culture. He is working with archives from his family as well as using his previous work with the youth Khirkee to create his project for the Coriolis Effect.