“I was excited by this idea of using the contact sheet as a form because that’s really my primary language in photography. The 12 images in a sheet can be combined, and suddenly form infinite possibilities,” exclaims Dayanita. As I engage with the sheets, albeit through a screen, I’m transfixed by the seamlessness with which the light sits together, almost as if the photographs were made with the intention of their convergence. But of course, with Singh, these possibilities are arrived at through chance encounters, with imagery that spans across a tremendously diverse archive. “I believe that the work determines what it wants to be. The moment you start to photograph to fit a form, it’s all downhill from there,” elucidates the artist.

If we specifically study the works titled Concrete Dreaming (2024), and Architects’ Gathering (2024), there seems to be a defined synergy of lines, hidden histories of architecture, and a strong intuitiveness within the compositions that reveal themselves to the viewer. Even though the locations are spread across Japan, Sri Lanka, India, and Portugal amongst others, the images come together in response to a specific ‘frequency,’ as Dayanita terms it. She explains that it makes her an ‘Architectural Detective,’ - turning the nobs on a radio, and finding the channel that matches. “There is something I seem to be responding to, but I can’t clearly articulate it. And it’s just as well, because if I were able to, then the work would not be so consuming,” she says passionately.

I’m particularly drawn to the umpteen number of pathways that appear in her work Light Did Not Know (2024). The contact sheet is purely bound by its geometry - devoid of scale, time, and geographical location. Even though the frames are compositionally fixed, they seem to open doors to unseen portals, a mystery waiting to be unveiled. The title of the work itself comes from architect, Louis Kahn’s book Licht und Raum-light and space in which he ruminates- “Light did not know what it was until it hit a wall.” It’s a poignant thought that also relates to Dayanita’s archives, providing her with ‘gifts,’ and ‘surprises,’ as she immerses herself in them.

A similar sense of ongoingness makes itself apparent in her contact sheet, Make Space (2024). The piece is a homage to Modernist architect, Álvaro Siza, the renowned designer of the Serravles Museum in Porto where Dayanita’s touring retrospective exhibition was held in 2023. The images are a combination of her own works that find space alongside Siza’s buildings, curated to form multiple entry and exit points through which light travels and breathes. When I share this aspect of her static images being able to create motion, Dayanita recounts an anecdote of one of her first encounters with celebrated architect and Pritzker Laureate, Balkrishna Doshi. “When I first met Mr. Doshi at his home, Kamala House in Ahmedabad, he looked at me and said, ‘So tell me Dayanita, how will you make a still photograph speak?” – there began a close friendship tied together by their preoccupations with light and its ability to suggest dialogue.

Speaking of mahauls for conversation, I am suddenly struck by a statement Dayanita made during a talk with curator, writer, editor, and educator David Campany that took place at The Frith Street Gallery a month ago. She said, “Tables determine the quality of the conversation.” When I asked if she could elaborate on this thought, she very simplistic describes how museums often have benches, but they don’t have tables where one can rest their arms, put their hands, and think. “Take a bureaucrat’s office for example, their large tables are intimidating. And then we have narrow tables which allow for easier conversation, and then what happens when there is no table? Does the conversation with strangers become awkward?” she questions.

This hint of architectural conversation brings me to a fascinating sculpture in the gallery space which is devoid of photographs. To someone familiar with Dayanita’s practice, the large fold-out structure alludes to her movable museums as part of her Museum Bhavan (2015) series, that has seen a cross-pollination of her archives over time. Except here, it stands empty. It acts as a tool for framing, as viewers engage with her other contact sheets through the vacant wooden frames, that could have ‘maybe’ held photographs that are currently in transition. “Were images already here, or are we waiting for them?” asks Dayanita while leaving room for an open-ended answer. She believes that the need for explanations and justifications often burdens photography. People may ask “Why is the photographer doing that? And I always ask, “But why not?”

Dayanita Singh’s exhibition is on at the Frith Street Gallery, London until Saturday June 29th, 2024.