We were lucky to catch up with Anshul Roy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Anshul, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career.

Growing up in India, I was extensively shaped by the Indian education system, and my recent years in the USA have been a process of deconditioning my mind. In my opinion, the phrase “Indian Education System” is a misnomer because, unfortunately, we don’t have an education system but a glorified job training program. It produces obedient workers but often fails to teach critical thinking skills and a deeper appreciation of culture and society.

French philosopher Louis Althusser wrote about how the education system functions as an “Ideological State Apparatus,” subliminally controlling students and imbuing them with the values and notions of the ruling class. This restricts individuality and limits the development of well-informed, questioning citizens. The infiltration of neoliberalism into academics is one of the worst things that has happened to education systems worldwide. Most people now perceive education only as a means to an end, usually for a “good job.” In modern universities, the pursuit of knowledge and the search for truth have been sidelined for monetary benefits. I detest this instrumental approach towards learning, which is one reason I eventually want to be an educator in India.

One change I would love to see in the education system is the incorporation of compulsory Photography and Visual Studies courses in both school and university curricula. We live in a visual society, consuming countless images daily that shape our worldview. Since the invention of the camera, photographs have been perceived as a ‘window to the world.’ This idea has been amplified in the age of mass cameras, as we spend much of our daily lives on screens. Despite this, our education system rarely teaches visual literacy or how to critically read images, which are often used for various nefarious purposes, including political propaganda. In 1936, Hungarian photographer Laszlo-Moholy Nagy wrote, “The illiterates of the future will be ignorant of the use of camera and pen alike.” I vehemently agree with this sentiment and believe that a robust education system should promote visual literacy and teach students how to critically engage with the world. This would help students become well-informed and discerning citizens, aware of how images influence our beliefs and identities.

Furthermore, photography, as a visual art, should be more prominently promoted in our education system. Photography is the most democratic art form, yet it has historically played second fiddle to Fine Arts like painting and sculpture. While many people take photos, it is still a challenge to take thoughtful photos. Learning photography can transform the way students interact with the world. One of my favorite quotes is by French author Marcel Proust: “The real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Photography teaches us to look at the world with conscious attention and to find joy in the profound beauty of our seemingly mundane surroundings. This skill can deeply enhance a student’s life.

I am well aware that I can’t radically change the Indian education system alone, but my goal is to at least try to implement some of my ideas as an Artist-Educator in the future.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a 27-year-old visual artist currently based in Syracuse, New York. I grew up in the beautiful city of Ahmedabad in western India and studied engineering as an undergraduate at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) before deciding to switch fields to pursue my passion for photography at Syracuse University.

Initially, I was attracted to photography as an art medium for its romantic notions, such as “seeing the world with new eyes,” “finding beauty in the mundane,” and “capturing the world at the decisive moment.” During this period, I became interested in various genres such as street photography, photomicrography, and architectural photography. However, my artistic practice recently underwent a paradigm shift when I discovered the nefarious aspects of the medium I loved so much. I realized how the camera has historically been used as a weapon against certain groups of people. Seeing images made in colonial India by British photographers led me to introspect about the role of the camera in expressing imperial power. This epiphany was like coming out of Plato’s cave for me, and it changed the way I perceived and approached photography.

My current artistic practice is anchored on a critical paradigm inspired by postcolonial discourses, exploring issues like identity, historical memory, visual ethics, and cultural representation. I am specifically interested in probing how photography was employed for othering during the British Raj and how these ethnographic photos exist in modern institutional archives and museums. My practice is interdisciplinary and spans experimental video, performance, and new media art. Initially, I used the web browser as a canvas, symbolically intervening in digital archives and creating screen-recorded videos.

I am highly influenced by Anton Chekhov’s notion that “the role of the artist is to ask questions, not give answers.” Hence, for me, art is not about beauty and visual pleasure. Instead, it is a tool for inducing critical thoughts in the viewer and hopefully facilitating some actual ground-level changes in the real world. Lately, I have been delving into lecture-performances as an art form because it ties well into my ideas about art as a way to initiate discourses. Now, I am more interested in tickling the viewer’s cerebral cortex than the retina. I am incredibly inspired by conceptual artists using archival images in their work, such as Alfredo Jaar, Leonardo Katz, Stephanie Syjuco, Annu Matthew, Fred Wilson, Hank Willis Thomas, Binh Danh, and RAQS Media Collective, among others.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the freedom to be unconventional and experimental. Art, unlike many other fields, has no fixed rules and has continually expanded its boundaries throughout history. This freedom is incredibly liberating as a contemporary artist, allowing complete pursuit of artistic vision and expression of a (hopefully) unique perspective on the world. The opportunity to contribute to cultural discourse, challenge norms, ask profound questions, and stimulate imagination makes being an artist a deeply satisfying endeavor.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Currently, the goal that drives my professional art practice is an insatiable desire to waste time on the internet and look critically at images and how they function as socio-political objects in our contemporary society. A mission that has always driven my personal street photography work is a commitment to derive aesthetic pleasure from the world as it is, every time I venture outside. These dual motivations—analyzing the socio-political dimensions of our networked image culture and finding visual joy in street photography—guide my creative journey. They also underscore my interests in both research-based critical inquiry and unhindered creative expression.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.anshulroy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sugrabheeta
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anshulroy42/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI6rNzhYbIzMu6hprFuaUQw

Image Credits

Anshul Roy