Living With The Last Potter

Words & Images by Ayan Biswas

Photo Essay | Issue 02

Corded ceramics has been one of the fundamental materials for understanding chronologies and cultural interactions. While documenting the existence of this art form in Ladakh, I started living with an old couple, also known to be the last Ladakhi potters family fostering the ancient technique and its earthy connections. The images that developed over time created a deeper understanding of their relationship with the land and coexistence. How the objects in their day to day life defined their identity. It made me question my existence and the very ideas of home and belonging.

They treated work with the reverence of an art form, a medium of self-expression and a way to make sense of their respective emotions which defined their lives. They could sense the birth of summer from the scent that swirled in the breeze from soil getting watered for the first time after months of dry winters. And just by gazing at the loose dirt, they could tell how soft and fat the potatoes had grown underground. The silence they shared, carried the weight of the things they saw in each other and experienced together.

This photo story explores the roots of their practice, tales of provenance and of the landscapes they carried within.

Likir, Village. Ladakh, India

Ayan Biswas is an independent documentary photographer living in Ladakh, India. My work involves visually representing the coexistence of indigenous people with nature, documenting their ways of living and understanding them from an ethnographic approach.