Mudit Ganguly
/By: Sajdeep Soomal
Mudit Ganguly in interview with Elspeth Brown at the CLGA (Photo: C. Barreto, 2017)
Skype conversation between Mudit Ganguly and his parents, Mali and Alin. Screenshot by Mudit Ganguly. 2017. Toronto, Ontario; Mumbai, India. Digital image. Gift of Mudit Ganguly. Courtesy of The Family Camera Network and the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives.
Mudit Ganguly is a queer 23-year-old graduate student in the OCADU digital futures program who grew up in Mumbai, India and came to Canada in September 2016 to begin his graduate training. In this interview, we look at two sets of photographs – one set of analog photos that belong to his mother, and another that document his queer family of friends in Toronto and Mumbai. Knowing that he was gay since childhood and growing up in a progressive family, Mudit talks about how his parents accepted him before and after coming out. He communicates with them now through Skype once a week – his elder brother sets up the camera for them so that the Skype can unfold. Mudit understands himself as an activist on behalf of queer human rights in India and elsewhere. His first gay pride parade was in 2013 in Mumbai; just two years later homosexuality was re-criminalized. Most of the snapshots from this period were taken on his phone and placed on Facebook; they mostly document his queer friendship circle.
Mudit's photos and interview can be accessed in The Family Camera Network public archive at The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives (formerly the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives).
