Fields Aflutter is part of Shashank Peshawaria’s ongoing photographic meditation on the landscape of his home state, Punjab. It foregrounds the flux in Punjab’s farmlands, which are witnessing sweeping economic change and migration as people leave in ever larger numbers for places in North America, Britain, Australia and beyond in search of more productive livelihoods. The photographs typify the transitions of agrarian lives, as mirrored in the regional landscape. Shot in analogue with a medium format camera, they exude a deep quietude that obscures this frenetic and irrevocable transformation of a land and its people.

Shashank Peshawaria is a visual artist from Amritsar, India. His work spans photography and film. Oscillating between frames of stillness and movement, his images embody cultural dislocations and contradictions. They study architecture and landscape to trace aesthetic, social and cultural patterns. Shashank holds an MA in Contemporary Art Practice (Moving Image) from the Royal College of Art, London. His work has been presented at the Bishopsgate Institute, London; BFI Southbank, London; Conflictorium, Ahmedabad; The Reach Gallery Museum, Abbotsford; Cork Photo Festival, Cork; South Kilburn Studios, London; and Doomed Gallery, London. It has also been published by Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and The Guardian. He has also worked in film productions, including Camera Threat (Bernd Lützeler, 2017). He is a recipient of the Creative Interruptions AHRC U.K. artist residency at Preet Nagar, Punjab (2018), and the Space118 Fine Art Grant (2021-22).