[x]

Centralia

Poulomi Basu
Dewi Lewis Publishing
ISBN 978-1-911306-57-3
200 x 300 mm
192 pages printed on a variety of papers, including a postcard and a small booklet

Centralia is an Indian docu-fiction that journeys deep into the forests of central India where a little known and under reported conflict between an indigenous tribal people and the Indian state slowly simmers. The pages of Poulomi Basu’s Centralia open with a dreamscape of mining sites and the surrounding hills lit up at night by fire¹. The book has multiple visual layers. Documentary style photos are presented on matt coated, ivory colored paper, dreamier photos find a home on rough uncoated paper. Cut-in-half pages show screenshots from a video taken by Anil Mishra, a local journalist. A section of blue pages gives the reader excepts from Maoist schoolbooks juxtaposed with an interview conducted by Poulomi with Anil. Translucent pages carry the pixelated portraits of young female Maoist martyrs.