All Eyes On: Priya Kambli

Priya Kambli is living between two worlds.

In one world, she is a girl who never cared much for photographs, who grew up in India and who was excited to leave India at age 18. She is a daughter, a sister.

In the other, Kambli is an American and associate professor of art, photography and foundations. She is married to professor of art Aaron Fine, who works two offices down from hers in Ophelia Parrish Hall. She has a five-year-old son, Kavi. Kambli has released a book of photography and travels across the U.S. and the world showcasing her photos.

Mostly, though, she is a woman in the middle of two cultures, two worlds. She is Indian, but she is American. She never saw herself in a small town, but these days she couldn’t picture leaving.

People often ask her, “Where are you from?”

She’s not quite sure how                to answer.

Kambli was born in Mumbai, India, where she spent her              childhood.

Kambli’s father was an amateur photographer, and he would frequently dress up his two daughters as the subjects for his photos.

They would pose for long periods of time, trying to keep a smile on their faces and sometimes getting into fights simply because they were too close for too long. Some of those fights are captured vividly in the photographs.

When she was 18, Kambli left India for the University of Louisiana-Lafayette to study graphic design. At the time, she was not interested in photography.

“I was having a little bit of a crisis being a teenager in India,” she said. “I think culturally, I wasn’t a perfect match.”

Soon, Kambli realized she’d rather take photos than arrange them on a page. Photography was fun for her, she said, as long as she was the one in charge.

She switched majors, earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and a graduate degree from the University of Houston and went out into the work force. She thought surely she would be headed to a big city.

 However, at age 25, a small, liberal arts school in Kirksville, Mo. hired Kambli.

Despite her original aversion, Kambli has grown to have a passion for photography.

“I got to watch how she improved,” Fine said. “I think people think that artists get good at art because lightning strikes them and they’re born a genius, and I’m sure that doesn’t hurt. But the way she got better in the 10 years I’ve known her is just working really hard and really being her own worst critic.”

Most of Kambli’s work focuses on life as a migrant and on the cultural dichotomy she is living. She has pieced together some of her father’s photographs                                with her own.

“[I am] trying to figure out a way to connect my past with my present, because those two lives for me feel like completely different planets at this point,” she said.

Kambli entered and won a photo contest in which the winner gets his or her work published in book form. The result was “Color Falls Down,” a 64-page softbound book containing 32 of Kambli’s images, released Feb. 1.

It took Kambli three or four years to complete the work, she said. She still is continuing the project beyond the photographs that appeared in the book.

“It was interesting because I had worked towards getting this book to have enough images that the body of work feels whole, but I didn’t feel that the body of work was complete yet,” she said.

Kambli said she enjoys talking to other individuals who are interested in and excited about                photography.

“She’s very encouraging and she always gives good advice,” said junior Janna Langholz, a student participating in an independent study for Kambli this semester.

Kambli has settled into this small town. She’s grown to like it.

“I think I’ve sort of made peace since it’s so easy having a child here and raising a child,” she said. “We travel a lot. ... Every time I find a fabulous conference in a fabulous city, I make sure I get to go to it.

She’s been back to India several times since coming to America. She still has family there. She wants to show her new family where she came from. And she’s been drawn back as she’s gotten older, “to sort of reconnect,” she said.

But Kambli still struggles with the question she so often is forced to ponder. People hear the accent. They see Kambli’s complexion. They always ask.

Where are you from?

“When I think of India, it’s all these childhood memories, but when I go now I’m sort of at a loss what to do with myself, besides shop or visit family,” she said. “I don’t have anything. I feel like a tourist there, because I am. I don’t have anything that feels like home.

“So in that regard, I think for me, home is here now, because my life is here.”