Yask Desai is a photographer, documentary filmmaker and writer.
He obtained a Bachelor of Arts with Honours majoring in sociology and media studies from Swinburne University in Melbourne.
He then completed a Masters degree in Mass Communication and documentary film making from Mass Communication Research Centre in New Delhi.
Since then he has worked in both video and photography for more than 20 years.
Yask was born in Melbourne, Australia. His father Rashmikant Desai moved to Australia in 1967 as he took up a job as a lecturer in Anthropology at Monash University.
Source: SBS
Yask says, “It was at Monash that his father first met his mum, who was a researcher there.”
For Yask, his upbringing was as an Australian, his parents never forced him regarding anything, be it religion, customs or tradition… they simply let Yask be himself.
Yask fondly remembers that his father would often talk about India in detail and give him interesting insights about people and places.
Right from the beginning Yask understood that he was a bit different from his Australian friends, but hardly faced any problems due to his mixed parentage or Indian heritage.
Source: SBS
Of course there would be occasional remarks from school mates that he should be riding an elephant, or about the ‘smelly Indian food’, but it was all harmless.
Though Yask had travelled to India few times with his parents as a kid, it was only after his graduation that he decided to visit India as a backpacker with a friend, which resulted in his decision of staying back and enrolling in Jamia Millia Islamia to pursue Masters in Mass Communication at the Mass Communication Research Centre (MCRC).
Source: SBS
Yask reminiscences, “I thought that if I lived there, if I studied there, if I worked there... that’s the best way to learn about India.”
Yask initially thought that people in India would easily take him to be an Indian, but that was not the case.
Source: SBS
Often people were shocked when they learnt that he had an Indian name and questioned him, as they would assume him to be a Westerner.
Yask made many good friends during his stay in India. He feels that in Australia people are very busy with their own lives, to meet friends. Also one needs to plan and inform well in advance, unlike in India.
Yask says, “you just drop around and have some tea and sit there... you end up sitting with your friends for half the day in a tea shop or in their living room. I really miss those easy friendships in India.”
It was at MCRC that Yask developed a passion for photography and documentary film making and made it his profession.
Source: SBS
His documentary films are held in the collections of universities and libraries worldwide.
They deal with topics as diverse as water rights, cultural appropriation of folk rituals in India and the impact of tourism on host populations in India.
His film, The Great Indian Yatra won the Best film award at The Wild Spaces Film Festival in 2001 and was also screened at Film South Asia in Kathmandu the following year.
His photography has been exhibited in India, Australia, Thailand and Bangladesh and published in numerous photography journals and on websites.
Source: SBS
He has had solo shows sponsored by the Australian High Commissions in both Delhi and Dhaka and his work was displayed in solo shows at the prestigious DRIK gallery in Dhaka and at the India International Centre in New Delhi.
His most recent exhibition entitled Deinstitutionalisation was supported by the Ararat Regional Gallery and is a series of photographs documenting the now defunct Ararat Psychiatric Hospital that still lies vacant to this day.
The work was published across a number of platforms including in PIX, India’s leading photography journal.
As a photographer, Yask finds India a fascinating destination. He states, “so much of the life is lived out publicly on the street... and that’s endlessly captivating for a photographer, to be able to walk those streets and capture that life. My two favourite places, one is Jama Mosque, just the general area around Jama Mosque and the other one is Nizamuddin.”
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Currently he is working on a series of street photographs entitled Spectral City which examines the ways in which modern metropolises shape human identity.
Selections of this work can currently be viewed on his Instagram page @peppersteakpartypie
He is a regular written contributor to DOX magazine, Europe’s leading documentary film magazine.
Yask sums up his feelings for both Australia and India, he states, “I love Australia because so much of my life has been here, but you know I am both, Indian and Australian. And I think that’s something very personal, its not something that any one else can define… It’s as if, you're a product totally of your experiences.”
Source: SBS
“When I grew up here, I was the most Indian person that anyone knew... and when I went to India, I was the most Australian person that anyone saw.”
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