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Sawani Chaudhary is an Indian visual artist and photographer whose work explores themes of memory, time, and the fragmented self. After initially training as a painter at the prestigious Sir J.J. School of Art in Mumbai, she later pursued an MFA in Photography at the Parsons School of Design in New York.
Chaudhary’s practice seamlessly blends photography, drawing, and archival material to build poetic narratives rooted in personal and collective histories.
Her thesis project, 'Buoyancy of Self', explores the multiplicity of memory, time, and space. Through this body of work, she evokes an emotional tension between physical spaces and inner worlds, challenging viewers to question what feels familiar and what is constructed. In 'Library of Hands', another pivotal body of work, Chaudhary documents hands engaged in acts of making — knitting, threading, sculpting — revealing gestures that connect thought to material, labour to love, and the personal to the universal. These images serve as intimate portraits, capturing the resilience and beauty of the everyday ritual of making, which is often passed down through generations.
Currently based in Mumbai, Chaudhary continues to navigate the space between disciplines, mediums, and geographies in her practice. Her work has been exhibited in both India and the United States, and she remains deeply committed to exploring how art can be a vessel for memory, emotion, and transformation.
Recently, as she photographed the Vivienne Westwood Spring Summer 2025 showcase (the iconic label's first in India) and the 2025 Lakmé Fashion Week in Mumbai, I spoke to her about her practice.
Your practice blends drawing, mixed media, and photography. How do you negotiate the conflict between the precision of photography and the unpredictability of traditional media? Is there a point where one medium disrupts another in your process?
I feel it's more of an intervention for me when it comes to different types of mediums. It's more of a process of letting go and not obsessing over the perfection of photography. Personally I love to obsess over it cause there are a lot of aesthetic possibilities and you can just keep going. I feel that moment of disruption emerged when I printed my images and saw them at a bigger scale. Rendering with pencil on black and white inkjet prints added another layer to the pieces and challenged the perceptions of the viewer on which is the actual image and which is the drawing.
Your works engage with the multiplicity of memory, space, and time. How do you translate these abstract, intangible concepts into visual narratives? How do you decide what to obscure and what to preserve?
For me the visual and process comes first and then I linger on the context of it. I look back on what I was drawn to, I would often visit the same places in Pune whenever I could that I visited in my childhood. Places that I have sketched before and now I go to photograph them. I tend to wander off walking, photographing markets in Mumbai. I refer to my older works as inspiration to create which pushes that thought and idea further and recontextualizes it into newer imagery. In terms of preserving and obscuring, it's more of an organic process and an interpretation of the things that I see.
You’ve described photography as an extension of your drawing and painting practice. How has your background in traditional art shaped your photographic style, especially in your exploration of gestural movements and the handmade?
I had printmaking in my art school and I started experimenting with printing processes like cyanotype and eventually started making prints with my negatives which got me interested in photography. When it comes to drawing and painting you commit to your practice and to building your own visual language. Once you have it is something that is unique to you. Initially with photography as a medium I found its nature to be more rigid and when it came to photography I always wondered how I could make it my own. This led me to explore and blend in my art background on my images be it drawing on my prints or making wearable objects based off my drawings and using them as props. I value skill and handmade things especially in today's world. I did a series on eyebrow threading and how women make a use of thread to shape one’s eyebrow. It's a very minute thing but I find it fascinating.
Having exhibited in Mumbai and New York, have you noticed differences in how Eastern and Western audiences engage with and react to your work? How does your identity as an artist from the Global South influence your creative choices when working abroad? Have you ever faced resistance, and how did you respond?
Thankfully New York is a diverse city with a wide audience, I didn't face any resistance there but I feel there is a gaze present when you are a brown female creative from India making work and applying to galleries and open calls. While working abroad you become a greater voice from the region you represent as you start integrating into the culture there. Sometimes, there is a presumed assumption about the type of work you do or what you choose to speak about, which has a chance of leading to being stereotyped.
Your portfolio spans portraiture, fashion, fine art, and still life. How do you navigate these diverse genres while maintaining a cohesive artistic voice? Are there experimental mediums or themes you’d like to explore in the future?
This is something that I am still working on. I don't want to restrict myself into one genre and want to integrate and bring my own vision into different types of photography. Personal work is important to me as I keep working on giving a visual form to my ideas. Executing these has helped me realise what interests me and what I genuinely enjoy. I love the uncertainty of this process and it helps me find unnoticed things within my work. I feel being playful has helped me to be in different spaces and photograph and I think it's an important element that I want to explore further in my practice.
Follow Sawani Chaudhary here.
