Taken over a 10 year period, Khichdi (Kitchari) explores India’s rapidly changing identity, focusing on gender, technology, and the balance of traditional Indian and western culture. Printed in New Delhi under the supervision of Sethi and designer Brian Lamotte, the book’s production draws upon the seemingly haphazard yet highly resourceful nature of a place where space and proximity lead to unexpected interactions. Materials are repurposed and recycled many times over. The locally sourced glossy paper contrasts with the roughness of the exposed spine and hand painted edges, allowing the physical object to exist somewhere between a mass-produced product and a hand-crafted object. Initially a sensory overload it unfolds into a complex web of ideas, involving the reader in a process of constant discovery and reexamination. Khichdi (Kitchari) is the first major monograph by Nick Sethi, an American-born photographer of Indian heritage living in New York City.
432 pages, dimensions, softcover, Dashwood Books (New York).