Waswo X. Waswo

Who is Waswo X. Waswo?

Waswo X. Waswo, is an artist and writer most commonly associated with his chemical process sepia-toned photographs of India, and also hand-colored portraits made at the artist’s studio in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Waswo’s first major book, India Poems: The Photographs, was in part a challenge to politically correct notions of the western artist's role in responding to Asia, and his work has been critiqued in the light of cultural theories that stem from Edward Said and his book Orientalism.

Waswo was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A. He studied at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, and later at Studio Marangoni, the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Florence, Italy. After extensive worldwide travels he settled in India in 2001, where he organized an exhibition of his Indian landscapes and portraits with the help of Alliance Française, Kashi Art Gallery, and Cymroza Art Gallery. The exhibition, called "India Poems", traveled to Cochin, Bangalore, Bombay, Udaipur and Goa, and also traveled internationally to Colombo and Kandy in Sri Lanka. "India Poems" culminated in a showing at The Haggerty Museum of Art in the artist's hometown of Milwaukee.