Annu Palakunnathu Matthew’s latest body of work, An Indian from India, investigates the "staged" photographic document and its power to reinforce cultural stereotypes.  Combining nineteenth century photographic representations of Native Americans with digitally altered facsimiles using her own image, Matthew creates fabricated pairings that explore both the notion of originality and that of identity.

As an immigrant, I am often questioned about where I am "really from." When I say that I am Indian, I often have to clarify that I am an Indian from India.  In this portfolio, I look at the other "Indian". I find similarities how Nineteenth century photographers of Native Americans looked at what they called they called the primitive natives, similar to the colonial gaze of the Nineteenth century British photographers working in India. In every culture there is the "other."    --Annu Palakunnathu Matthew

Born in England, Matthew was raised in India.  She now lives in the United States, having received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Photography from the University of Delaware in 1997.  Currently she is an Assistant Professor of Photography at the University of Rhode Island.  Matthew’s prints featured in "Identity" are the result of a collaboration with Cone Editions Press.  Master Printer Larry Danque utilized the Piezography process with hand-mixed inks for this project.

Matthew’s recent exhibitions include the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Light Work, Syracuse, NY, the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, and the Center for Photography at Woodstock.  In the last year, Matthew was awarded the 2003 John Gutmann award and received two project grants from the Rhode Island State Council of the Arts and an artist residency at the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH.  Her work can be found in the collection of the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ, and the RISD Museum, Providence, RI, among others.  Matthew’s work is included in the books BLINK from Phaidon and Digital Art by Christiane Paul, curator of New Media Arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art.