From the 1990s, artists also used photography to document social change. How did Sheba Chachi, Ravi Agarwal and Atul Bhalla use it?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → By photographing those who lived on the margins of society
Option (1) By photographing those who lived on the margins of society — Correct. They photographed people we hardly notice in daily life, such as women ascetics and queer people.
Option (2) By photographing the new look of cities after technological change — Incorrect. T. V. Santosh and Shibu Natesan showed the new look of cities. They did it through photorealism, painting in the manner of a photograph.
Option (3) By photographing popular images on calendars and film hoardings — Incorrect. Younger painters in Mumbai drew on calendars, advertisements and film hoardings. This came before the new media of the 1990s.
Option (4) By photographing scenes of communal violence in cities — Incorrect. T. V. Santosh and Shibu Natesan commented on communal violence. They painted in the manner of a photograph (photorealism) and did not photograph it.
Note: This topic was not named in the CUET 2026 syllabus, but it was part of the NCERT chapter. In 2025 and 2026, NTA also asked questions on topics in NCERT that the CUET syllabus did not name. So our mocks have questions from every part of the NCERT chapter, to give you enough practice. Read the whole chapter, not only the sub-topics named in the syllabus.
NCERT (2026-27): “New Media Art: from 1990s … Photography could also be used to document changes in society as artists saw them. Sheba Chachi, Ravi Agarwal and Atul Bhalla, among others, photographed those, who lived on the margins of our society, whom we do not notice much in our day-to-day life — women ascetics, queer people, and so on. Often, they would express their concern about ecology like pollution of rivers and urban congestion.” |