Sujata Setia is an Indian-born interdisciplinary artist now living in the UK. Her socially engaged practice explores gender-based erasure, inherited structures and cultural imperialism.
Drawing on a background in journalism and an MA in International Relations from King’s College London, Sujata combines documentary photography, oral and vernacular histories, and traditional artistic interventions to challenge the archival absence of subaltern voices.
A survivor of gender-based abuse, Sujata places lived experience and ‘otherness’ at the heart of her work. Her ongoing project A Thousand Cuts, which examines domestic abuse within South Asian communities, has received the Wellcome Photography Prize, the Sony World Photography Award (Creative category), LensCulture Critics’ Choice Award, Format Festival Award and is a finalist at The Aesthetica Art Prize.
Sujata recently received the Centre for British Photography Realisation Grant to expand A Thousand Cuts and is currently developing new bodies of work addressing child sexual abuse in South Asian communities and the significance of work place for women artisans in conflict-affected Kashmir. Both projects are grounded in feminist methodologies, co-creation, and long-form ethnographic and qualitative research.
Her work has been featured in The Times, Guardian, BBC, CNN, Vogue, Forbes, and Harpers Bazaar amongst others. She has been honoured by the British Journal of Photography (Female in Focus), Tokyo International Foto Awards (Photographer of the Year), Association of Photographers (Open Gold Winner), and POCC Art Fund, Culture King’s Creative Collaboraton Grant among others.
Sujata lives and works between the UK and India, regularly facilitating art therapy initiatives and public engagements that bring trauma-informed storytelling into socially engaged spaces. She also conducts guest lectures at universities, sharing insights from her research and practice.