At a local Mexican restaurant (San Miguelito on Oregon Ave, Philadelphia). Hole in the wall places always have the best food + run by a family.
Wrote an article on being blocked by National Geographic DOP Alex Pollack blocking me on Instagram for asking questions on representation. Also some experiences in visual journalism industry.
medium.com/@chiragwakas...
Prime Numbers separated by digital roots. 9x12 Canson Black + POSCA markers. Generated in python, phyllotaxis form visualizes the prime numbers between 1-10000 (1229) #penplot #math
Deep dive into the archival failures & lies of photojournalism's gatekeepers @magnumphotos.bsky.social & @worldpressphoto.bsky.social
medium.com/@chiragwakas...
MathArt. Kaprekar number (sum of square split up is original number) & Harshad number (divisible by sum of it's digits) as Phyllotaxis. This is a physical convergence of mathematical theories & science of nature. Red (Harshad), Blue (Kaprekar), Green (Both), White (none). 9x12 Canson + POSCA
Disappointing.
How do you justify platforming someone accused of sexual harassment in the 70th year anniversary exhibit? Their name offers prominently in your own blog.
witness.worldpressphoto.org/want-more-wo...
How can you justify handing over curation to someone who heads @magnumphotos who continue to sell exploitation of vulnerable women from the global south as some sort of art? Disappointing.
www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture...
Heitmann, Magnum, NYTimes & world press photo have laundered Kremlin propaganda.
medium.com/@chiragwakas...
Makes me miss falsa so much!! Childhood memories of falsa seller peddling through the small lanes singing "Sridevi tasted falsa" "Amitabh eaten falsa"
Thank you for helping me share some thoughts on photography.
In postcolonial societies, “looking” is never neutral 📷
Photographer-curator Chirag Wakaskar & I talk about how to resist the colonial gaze & what it costs.
Link ↓
1/2 As the Nanna Heitmann case shows,there is a significant lack of awareness in Western Europe and the US of Russian propaganda spread by Western media outlets, Russian opposition media, and the exiled opposition movement itself. Russian propagandists like this German photographer living in Moscow
Why not empower a local photographer from Nepal to tell their story rather than relying on a Western outsider whose lens is shaped by distance, privilege and the extractive logic of parachute journalism?
Mumbai city elevation map that was generated by code in Python using elevation data and then plotted onto a transparency sheet using a CNC Pen Plotter and contact printed on mixed media paper coated with cyanotype chemicals.
Is this a render based on NASA LRO? CNSA doesn't really have anything about it in the release. www.cnsa.gov.cn/english/n646...
Wrote on "Terror of war", disappearing embargo message and a Chilean President. @worldpressphoto.bsky.social
medium.com/@chiragwakas...
Changes DP to come across more friendly. Hope it works.
It is propaganda. Heitmann could not have been in that space without Kremlin's explicit authorization. Also WPP awarded her even though her submitted caption mismatched nytimes - she had submitted "Ukranian conscript" - nyt had Russian soldier till 4th April 2025.
It is also an examplary story about how to lose the war on information. It shows how Western media are useful for ruzzian propagandists & media. After years of debates on the war on information and ruzzian state media @WorldPressPhoto offers the big stage to @tass_agency….
Indeed, by championing a narrative that selectively omits state violence while glorifying its repercussions @worldpressphoto not only has abdicated journalistic integrity but also transformed their platform into a willing accomplice in the dissemination of Kremlin-sanctioned revisionism.
So that‘s what you mean by „stories that matter“? Helicopter journalism on a Russian propaganda platform by someone who called the fall of Bakhmut a „liberation“ … ? Really now?
bsky.app/profile/civi...
Your invocation of fairness and rigour collapses under the weight of grotesque hypocrisy by legitimising a TASS propagandist, you not only erode the moral foundation of your institution but actively launder state propaganda through the veneer of journalistic excellence.
By awarding a staff photographer from a state propaganda machine notorious for spreading misinformation, you've legitimized their lies. Your process is broken, complicit and a disgrace to press freedom.
By awarding photojournalist from an agency that is a propaganda arm of the state (the reason Getty & Reuters cut ties with TASS) WPP has betrayed its commitment to press freedom, legitimized state-controlled disinformation and compromised its own credibility as a champion of ethical photojournalism
The jury judges blindly but fails to see the blood on the lens - state media doesn't report truth, it launders propaganda. Allowing all photographers means nothing when the work serves those who spill ink to cover up spilled blood. No caption can wash that stain away.
Key dates on the evolution of anti homosexuality advocacy and online violence against LGBTQIA+ communities in Ethiopia: 1/
I'm pleased to exhibit a new body of work at the McCord-Stewart Museum next month. More information will be available soon.
