Petra Stavast: ‘Ramya’ – Beautifully Archiving Your Landlady for 14 years

Petra Stavast (Tiel, NL, 1977) is a visual artist. Through the media of photography, film and text she unravels and structures complex social issues often departing from a seemingly insignificant personal observation. In books and installations she brings different fragments of research together and translates them into compelling visual stories.

Netherlands –

Ramya, long-term personal project converted into a photobook by Dutch photographer Petra Stavast, made over a period of 14 years, is simple story of a tenant documenting her landlady Ramya when she first moved into her house in 2001. Published and designed by Hans Gremmen of f-w photography, Stavast successfully creates a very personal and intimate connection while photographing Ramya and her surroundings. The project is also beautified with photographs and video works from Ramya’s private archive and her strong faith in Rajneeshpuram(OSHO), established between 1981 and 1985 in no-man-land of Oregon, USA.

Nominated as the Best Book of 2014 for Photo-Eye and Emaho, ‘Ramya’ was my favourite book from 2014 and the simplicity of the book with a very deep-seated relation of the photographer and the photographed, is a sheer visual delight.

Photography Reviewed by Manik Katyal