AID India Calls for Photographs: Makaan 2010

Calendar 2010: Calling All Photographers

AID India is SEEKING photographs on the theme of Makaan for the 2010 AID calendar, part of a three-year series on the theme: Roti-Kapda-Makaan!

What does Makaan mean to you? What does it take to make a home? To lose one?

AID India invites pictures that highlight the myriad expressions of home,  the hopes, dreams, struggles and fears that are built into places people across India call home .. not only dwellings but also places of learning, and centers for family and community interaction.  

What ideas of family and community are reflected in the building and surrounding layout?

With this calendar, AID India wants to show India’s rich architectural traditions, such as structures that protect from the elements of nature as well as complement and utilize the ambient nature (climate) to the fullest, so as not to be dependent upon artificial energy sources.

Through the calendar AID India also wants to highlight issues such as use of natural and local materials in buildings, climate-responsive architecture, green and zero-waste buildings and techniques and age-old traditions that minimize impact of buildings on land and environment both during construction and usage.

The aim is to also highlight ways in which a large majority of people make their living spaces pleasing and comfortable for their use and the use of their loved ones. Last, but never the least, AID seeks to highlight the plight of the lesser sung people who bring these buildings to shape- the craftsmen, the artisans, the construction workers and others who are part of this supply chain of erecting the shelters we call home.

AID calendars reach thousands of people each year.  Previous years’ themes have been Roti: Sharing Food, Sharing Values, Kapda: Weaving Values, Nurturing Nature, Rural Livelihoods, North East India, Women and Work, Wisdom of the Grasroots, Inspiring Changes, and Narmada, and have included images taken by leading Indian and international photographers, journalists, and grassroots workers.

Guidelines for Submission

Printed photographs of size 8×10 may be scanned at 300 dpi and submitted to calendar.aid(at)gmail(dot)com

Digital photographs must be at least 300 dpi at 8×10 size [2400 x3000 pixels] and may be submitted to calendar.aid AT gmail DOT com

You may also submit prints or digital images on disk via postal mail. Please send in proper packing to:

Sonika Sethi
1900 S Eads St. Apt. #713
Arlington, VA 22202.

Please include:

• Description of photograph: what is important / interesting?
• Name of Photographer
• Year taken
• Place taken
• Full contact info of photographer
• Consent to publish in AID Calendar
• Consent to include in AID Gallery (optional)

 Please submit photographs as early as possible, but certainly by June 30th, 2009.