Not what you saw

Foam presents the first museum exhibition of London-based photographer Keerthana Kunnath, who uses the camera as a tool to address socio-cultural issues. For her debut series Not what you saw, Kunnath documented female bodybuilders in Kerela, Southern India, to break conventional stereotypes and reshape the cultural constructs of gender and beauty in the region. The images, exuding both strength and softness, invite the viewer to question preconceptions of what a woman should look like – and look again. Not what you saw by Keerthana Kunnath. A documentation of female bodybuilders in South India. The stories of these bodybuilders are at once inspiring and intriguing—by practicing the sport, they are challenging the status quo, questioning the male gaze and defying societal expectations of femininity.