Shillong, Nov 24: The first photobook by Tarun Bhartiya, titled Em No Nahi, will be released in the city on December 11.
“Em”—No—is about a refusal that turned into a rallying cry in Meghalaya, as 90-year-old Spillity Lyngdoh Langrin turned away those who would mine her land in the West Khasi Hills for uranium. Bhartiya’s images and text distil that defining moment into a moving celebration of civic resistance.
Bhartiya passed away earlier this year. He was a prolific photographer and documentary filmmaker, a highly regarded film editor, an accomplished poet in Hindi, as well as a co-founder and editor of Raiot, the path-breaking webzine that emerged out of Shillong.
Tying it all together was a declaration he made with pride: ‘I do politics’.
The pictures in this book, and the brief notes that accompany them, are about that politics. They are only a small selection of the thousands of images that Bhartiya left behind on his computer when he suddenly passed away, an invaluable record of an ‘outsider’ reading deeply into the society and landscape of Meghalaya.
Em No Nahi carries over 80 photographs and a moving afterword by Angela Rangad, Bhartiya’s comrade in life and politics, as well as a special pullout booklet, A Very Short Guide to Uranium Mining.
The book is bilingual with text in English and Khasi.
