working vacation: india
performance and 15 photographs I 2006
In January of 2005 I went to India for the first time. For this performance and photography project I approached people I did not know and asked them if I could take a picture with them, while helping them with their particular job. This is an attempt to critically and humorously examine and parody what I think of as a new Orientalism: cultural and academic tourism.
These photographs are intended neither as a document of my vacation (as tourist) nor of the people and places of India (as anthropologist). In fact, this is exactly what I wish to contradict. By inserting myself in these situations I am challenging the expectations of the viewer who is forced to confront issues of exploitation.