For the world at large, Rohit is more well known as an emerging documentary photographer whose practice is grounded in the realm of social justice. His recent and widely acclaimed book project, titled 1528, is a searing examination of the more than three decade long history of extra-judicial killings carried out by the Indian military in the north-east Indian state of Manipur. Part investigation, part documentary and part journal, the book is a gritty portrayal of resilience in the face of a generations long struggle for justice and autonomy. But if you stay with this work for a little longer, allowing the immediate harshness of its imagery to settle, the work also, slowly, reveals itself to be a testament to the trust and friendship Rohit was extended by those whose stories he depicts.

1528 was a project that took shape over a number of years, and as he worked on it, Rohit also began to encounter other stories. On his return to Manipur in 2019, he arrived to find wild rumours circulating of a mysterious, unidentified creature, named ‘the predator’, who was roaming the forests at night, killing cattle. For a time, it was all anyone there could talk about. Intriguingly, for Rohit, the incident felt akin to arriving at a crossroad of sorts, almost as though he had been found, yet again, by something unknown, yet eerily familiar. This had happened to him before. In 2018, Rohit was in the south Indian hill town of Kodaikanal. He was researching for a project on the invisible but highly toxic mercury contamination caused by the illegal discharge of by-products by a Unilever thermometer factory. When meeting a friend one evening, Rohit overheard a man proclaiming with palpable excitement - ‘last night, I fucking saw aliens!’. He took this as another sign, one of recognition. Further back, in 2016, Rohit had attempted to visualise and understand what he sensed to be present around him, in a project titled, Because I Believe. It was then that Rohit had first visited Kodaikanal, among other sites. His encounter there two years later with a man who had seen, seemed only to confirm for Rohit that it was worthwhile to continue following his instinct – to both believe and to make.

But what really was this something that permeated the air around him? When talking about his practice in broad terms, Rohit often brings up the feelings of anxiety, apprehension and fear that accompany our consumption of news, our presence on social media, and the screens we inhabit. ‘The nuclear threat, the threat of global warming, and the threat of A.I are three of the biggest threats I see in our present moment’, says Rohit. During the pandemic, he made 100 Seconds, a video work that was his response to the conflicting and ever-present, yet strangely atomised strands of media that occupied our lives at the height of the crisis. In it, we see a fragmented world mired not only by a deadly virus, but also more existential threats of lies upending truths, brute strength gaining favour in the face of collapsing diplomacies, and the inescapable fear of an immanent apocalypse driven by the failures of human egos. A handwritten line appears on the screen about halfway into the video, and it reads, ‘We are all connected’. Watching it, I wonder, does this something that Rohit senses around him, also appear in the form of a collective anxiety we all participate in?

A recognizably gnawing sense that we are all falling apart, and our holds onto our realities gradually disappearing, somewhere?

Somewhere. In 2022, Rohit was one of the recipients of the Arttaca Grant for Photography, and he used it to return to some of the original sites of his encounters, revisiting what it meant to really look up at the sky in wonder. Somewhere is a video, photo, text and audio piece, and it shifts and moves through these mediums playfully. Despite the eerie backdrop of its audio – a voice speaking in an unrecognisable, almost alien tongue interspersed with sounds of the night – many of its images are filled with a light that is more fascinating and mysterious than disconcerting. There are times the piece feels like an investigative document, but it pivots the following moment into a game of cat and mouse. It is almost as though this something is looking back at Rohit, and just barely, escaping both his and our gaze. What is most fascinating about Somewhere is that although it periodically moves into uncanny territory, it doesn’t remain there; its images somehow transcend into planes of mystery and fascination, curiosity and very often, beauty. This is a work not merely of investigation and curiosity, but also acknowledgement, understanding and acceptance.

Rohit Saha’s ongoing project Somewhere was shown at RDX Offsite, Bangkok, as part of the Arttaca Group Exhibition, from October 1st to the 31st, 2022.