Parthiv Shah

Parthiv is the Founder- Director of CMAC and is a photographer, filmmaker and a graphic designer. He has made several documentary films, curated exhibitions and has several photo-books to his credit. An alumnus of the National Institute of Design, India, he was invited as a visiting scholar at the SOAS, London University and at the University of California, Davis. Growing up in a family of artists and through his own professional training, he brings an interesting intersection of art, photography and design to his work.

Lately, Parthiv has been particularly interested and engaged in working on the issue of image perception and representation. His visual journeys have led him to work with communities which are finding a mainstream voice and identity, including the transgender community and street children.  He has been awarded a senior fellowship in Photography by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, Charles Wallace Fellowship, UK; and the Fulbright Lectureship award to teach at the UCLA, USA.

Books

Figures, Facts, Feelings:  A Direct Diasporic Dialogue
Published by CMAC, 2000

Working in the Mill No More
By Jan Breman and Parthiv Shah,
Published by the Oxford University Press and
Amsterdam University Press, 2004

Kaaya-Beyond Gender
By Vidya Shah, Aditya Bandhopadhyay and Parthiv Shah
Published by CMAC, 2005

Narmada
By Parthiv Shah and Vidya ShahPublished by Pratham Books, 2010

Art as witness
Edited by Parthiv Shah and Sana Das,
Published by Tulika Books, 2010

Amongst CMAC’s Projects

Women on Record: An art and media project that celebrates the Gramophone record era in the early 20^th Century through music, theatre, dance, photography and film. Supported by the Ford Foundation the project is a multi-media experience that is an important creative documentation of an otherwise less celebrated history of Indian music.

Art as Witness is a cluster of barbed writings and biting images from the underbelly of turbulent India and its restless neighbours. Edited by photo-artist Parthiv Shah and research scholar, Sana Das, the book demonstrates the painstaking work of eminent photographers in and around South Asia, activists, lawyers, writers and creative artists and their perspectives on the fragile human rights situation in the region. The book was initiated under Amnesty International India’s Art for Activism endeavour in collaboration with CMAC, Centre for Media and Alternative Communication, New Delhi.

Art Moves: In collaboration with Make Art Stop AIDS (MASA), CMAC conceived, curated and designed the Avant Garde show on celebrated Artworks on HIV/AIDS by artists from across four countries. The exhibition was the first of its kind in India, in creating a public platform to engage unconventional audiences in railway stations, in Universities, as well as hospitals, in a dialogue through art seen otherwise only in spaces such as galleries and museums. The USP of the show was the manner in which the works were mounted on mobile structures.

WE can end Violence against women: In this six country project, based in South Asia CMAC has been the communication partner of Oxfam GB that initiated this campaign. Right from inception CMAC was involved in the branding of the campaign from creating the logo, the publicity/advocacy materials the campaign song/video, photography exhibitions, radio programs for awareness and other such.

Phone: 91-11-2015881, 26015882
Email: parthiv165@gmail.com

Vidya Shah

Vidya shah is Director Programs at the CMAC. She is a social activist, writer and a musician.

She started working on social issues as Programme Fellow, Indo-German Social Service Program (IGSSS). Later she worked as an activist with KhedutMazdoorChetnaSanghatan (Rights based Trade Union for Agricultural Laborers) Jhabua district in Madhya Pradesh, India. She has been Research Officer with National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO).

She was founder member of Paridhi Research – Rights based women’s organisation working on reproductive and sexual health with focus on birth control methods. She has been consultant with Centre for Development Studies, University of Wales, DFID, UK, UNIFEM, UNDP and HIV and Development Office, South and South West Asia for Trafficking and Vulnerability of Women and Girls to HIV/AIDS in India, Nepal and Bangladesh for the United Nations Research Institute of Social Development (UNRISD). She was Programme Co-ordinator with Naz Foundation (India) Trust. She was Director Education in Breakthrough (A Human Rights Organization).

Her publications include:

• The Challenge of Changing values in Indian Culture: The case of Music; Presented at a Seminar organised by INTACH and Nakshband Educational Trust, IIC, 15 March, New Delhi Published in the South Asia Foundation Quarterly, April 2008;
• My Body is Not Mine: Book on the MSM community and rights violations across 6 states in India in collaboration with the Naz Foundation International, supported by DFID-PMO, November 2008
• Technical Paper on Gender, Vulnerabilities and HIV/AIDS for the UNIFEM South Asian Regional Office, New Delhi, January 2003
• Layers of Silence on Cross Border Trafficking and Women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, for the UNRISD Project on HIV and Development, 2002
• Brokered Livelihood: Debt, labour migration and Development in Tribal Western India in Labor Mobility in Rural Society, edited by Ben Rogaly and Arjaan de Haan, Published by Frank Cass Publishers, UK, 2002
• Strength in Action: An Educators Guide on Preventing Domestic Violence, Breakthrough, 2004
• Talking HIV and Gender: Media and Messaging a Hand book; Women’s Feature Service and UNIFEM, 2006
• Jalsa: Indian women and their journeys from the salon to the studio, Tulika Books, 2016

Other projects:

• Creative Consultant: “The World in the Balance” For PBS; Directed by Sarah Holt; Executive Producers Linda Harrar for WGBH; 2004
• Editor “People Plus” a book on the lives of HIV positive people, UNAIDS India, 2001
• Creative writer For Women’s day campaign, 2001 for Ministry of Women and Child Welfare and Centre for Media and Alternative Communication (CMAC), March 2001
• Consultant in an advocacy project on “Peace and Equality” for National Commission for Women (NCW) December 1999
• Script and Research For a documentary film on Visual Anthropology, Doordarshan, National television channel, 1997–98
• Editor Paper on ‘Lacquer work in India’ for a UNESCO workshop in Myanmar, UNESCO, 1996 and Paper on ‘Basic Education in India’ for a UNESCO conference in India, UNESCO 1995

Nabeela Rizvi

Nabeela Rizvi works as a Researcher (Media) at CMAC and is an aspiring documentary film maker. She’s been a part of several NGOs that work towards empowering women and has completed her studies in filmmaking with a specialization in screenwriting from Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi.

Shraboni Roy

Shraboni is a Design Consultant for CMAC. She has 20 years of experience in the field and her designing endeavors range from  coffee table books, fiction, nonfiction to brochures. She has also designed panels for several exhibitions as well as their merchandise. Shraboni has worked closely with stalwarts like Chef Vikas Khanna, Ajay chakraborty, KS Radhakrishnan and Ramkinkar Vaij. Apart from this, Shraboni is also passionate about music and other performing arts.

Vibhuti Jain

Vibhuti Jain, intern at CMAC, is a multidisciplinary designer currently pursuing Exhibition Design at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Specializing as a space visualizer and experience designer, she is passionate about transforming environments to create enhanced visitor experiences through spatial design, graphics, and multisensory elements. Her expertise extends to environmental graphic design and art direction, with a strong affinity for creative arts.

Saman Urooj

Saman is an enthusiastic student pursuing a BA in Digital Media and Arts from Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University. She freelances as a video editor and graphic designer. Currently, she is working with CMAC under the guidance of Mr. Parthiv Shah and Ms. Vidya Shah. Saman is honing her editing and design skills, allowing her to explore and experiment with innovative ways of thinking, creating, and communicating through media.

Apurva Dutta

Apurva has been associated as a writer and researcher at CMAC for about a year, primarily supporting CSR projects. She holds a master’s degree in Mass Communication and Filmmaking from AJK MCRC Jamia Millia Islamia, with a specialization in screenwriting. Apurva is deeply passionate about social causes, particularly gender issues and representation in cinema. She wishes to create documentaries incorporating the language of cinema to ignite global conversations.