Paintings on the wall. With abstract colors. Crooked lines. Sometimes unreal representations. Objects in front of us. Bent in weird ways. Not possibly useful. Yet, making us gaze at them with oh-so-much intensity. This is the beauty of art. Somehow, these ‘unreal’ representations are so real that they amaze us and on other occasions, there needs to be no deeper meaning, no soulful metaphor. We just behold the thing of beauty in front of us!
Photography on the other hand is an entirely breathtaking form of art in itself, we say! Capturing the most beautiful places in the world. Maybe a simple photograph of yourself. Maybe a simple photograph of normal day to day life. But on wiser days, these simple or majestic photographs turn out to be not only treats for our eyes to behold, but for our minds to understand as well! A simple picture can say a thousand words. You only need to look closer.
Let’s now look at some amazing people who give us really bad inferiority complexes with their stunning creations!
DOWN THE MEMORY LANE
Anusha Yadav, is a professional photographer, graphic designer, curator and the brainchild behind The Indian Memory Project. The Indian Memory Project happens to be world’s first crowd-sourced online photograph archive. What stands out about this project is that it is not merely a site for personal photographs being put up, but, to relive history through the experiences and moments shared by people. There are photographs which share the stories of all kinds. Love, hate, war, peace, family, revolution, happiness and what not.
The idea behind this project has been not to merely put photos out there but to bring out the deep unique meanings that these pictures hold. Yadav is a lover of photography as it captures and treasures memories. She says,
Memories are special to everybody. It is a form of identity and a treasure trove of information. Memory is another word for experience.
Yadav loves the world. For her, it encapsulates everything.
Images Courtesy: The Indian Memory Project
BEHOLD THE POWER
Shahidul Alam sees the power of photography. He sees the strength and potential that it holds, the statements it can make. This is the reason he took up photography even though he did a PhD from the University Of London. He is a photographer, writer, curator and an activist, as well as the founder of Drik, a Bangladesh-based photography library. His tryst with photography began when he documented the 1984 struggle in Bangladesh to remove General Ershad. After that, there has been no looking back.
He has set up award winning photography agencies and has been a speaker at the likes of Harvard University, Stanford, UCLA, Oxford University and Cambridge University. Alam believes in the power of a picture. He captures, what might be to some, random pictures of everyday life, but to some others, can be the spark that ignite ideas within.
In his words,
I don’t just like photography. I like the change photography can get.
Images Courtesy: shaidulalam.com
BREAKER OF CHAINS
Talking freely about sexuality has been turned into a taboo. Speaking about it or thinking about it, should only initiate a feeling of guilt within us, the world tells us. Andrea Fernandes is a photographer and writer, whose work centers mainly around the representation of sexuality and gender. For example, her work- Killing Kittens, centers on the female expression of sexuality. Fernandes reached out and talked to women all around and heard their stories of sexual frustration. Then bringing together all the stories, she created photographs which represented not only this repression, but were revolutionary as well. Her work talks about the liberation of one’s sexuality.
For Fernandes, art and photography are not merely representations of random moments and memories, but are expressions of revolution and freedom.
Images Courtesy: andreafernandesphotography.com
INTO INFINITY
For Poonam Jain, an artist and the Director of Clark House Initiative Bombay, art begins under the influence of her childhood. As a young girl, numbers were a huge part of her upbringing, and this now reflects in her work. The influence of numbers and strict patterns gives her creations an almost architectural perfection.
But where it does differ from architectural perfection is when you observe her creations closely. While they might be quite neatly laid out, yet, they represent a larger than life plethora of meanings and emotions. Jain states that her work represents finiteness.
Images Courtesy: artsome.co
We only tried to express the beauty that is art and photography. But it is not only for words to explain. It is for the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the mind to comprehend and the heart to hold close. Forever.
Find all these amazingly talented personalities live at The Coalition on 4th, 5th & 6th March in Delhi. Find more information and get your tickets here.
