Lost in the Wilderness by Kalpesh Lathigra
“As a kid you have such simplistic notions of identity,” he says. “I’m of Indian decent, but in playground games of Cowboys and Indians, no distinction was made between Indians from the subcontinent and Native Americans”, he explains. “What’s more, I always wanted to be the cowboy. I wanted to be the hero; maybe that’s why I’m so romantic about cowboys to this day.” This “slow burn of consciousness” — how childhood experiences embed themselves in our adult lives — is a point of departure for Lathigra’s new series Lost in the Wilderness.
“Midway through the series I was in The Strand bookshop in New York; without looking for it, a book titled Lost Bird of Wounded Knee jumped out at me. Reading it I learned the significance of the grave and the image took on whole new life. Whether it was serendipity, or something else, it is chance encounters like this which made me feel like I am on the right path.”
