PurpleGanesh & WPJA

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Its official ! I've been accepted into WPJA - Wedding Photojournalist Association. Its a privilege to be associated with some hardcore bunch of talented folks worldwide. Thank you : )

From the WPJA site

" Since 2002 the WPJA has been the number one trusted source for the best wedding photojournalists in the world. Recognized for excellence by leading wedding publications including BRIDES magazine, the WPJA is an international network of vigorously vetted professional photographers whose work is regularly judged by award-winning photojournalists (including many Pulitzer Prize-winners) and news photo editors.  With ongoing curatorial vision the association identifies emerging talent, keeping our talent pool fresh and cutting edge. The WPJA is dedicated to upholding the highest standards in creative wedding photojournalism while promoting best business practices. "

Views from the other side

My first recollection of  Marina Beach in Chennai was through the windows of a 70s sedan.  I must have been around six years old. We were picked up by my uncle  from Chennai Central Railway Station and were being driven to Adayar along Kamarajar Salai by the Bay of Bengal. It was  pre-dawn overcast skies, the beach was yet to turn golden. With no traffic we seemed to have the entire beach road for ourselves as I passed by an ocean for the  first time in my life.

I clearly remember asking my father what lies beyond the water. I can't seem to recollect the exact answer except for the word that rhymed with "Phor-rin". It was when I constructed my first geographical binary - with Madras on end of the world, and "Phor-rin" on the the other, separated by the seemingly endless expanse of water and the Marina beach. My queries as to whether I would be able to see "Phor-rin" from this side was promptly dismissed.

For someone who lived in Chennai for the next eleven years before I left for college, I dont think I  visited the beach more than a dozen times. It always felt like an arduous effort, to dispense way too much time  in an inefficient public transit system for a couple of hours at the beach and having to return in a crowded bus with sticky pants and salty legs.

It is ironic the first time I would photograph the Marina Beach was during my last visit to Chennai from"Phor-rin". With one hour to kill while I was waiting to complete an errand in Mylapore I took an autorickshaw to the beach. The urban designer in me took over the photographer, as I walked along what seemed like a recently constructed pedestrian promenade. It was early evening in mid January - the sun was setting on the other side and the traffic seemed to be under control - far from the maddening crowd along the IT corridors in Taramani and beyond. The beach was slowing coming back to life with the evening walkers, isolated couples and street vendors. One of the last remaining successful public places in Chennai was getting ready for its primetime, as I jump into an auto to head back to my appointment....with dry pants and unsalted legs.

 

Vernacolors

I wish I had the balls to paint the exterior of my house orange, pink or electric green...Apart from an imminent breakdown of all communication channels with my partner, I dont think it would go very well with my condo mates either.  It wouldnt surprise me if all the home owners in the entire street get together and sue me for conspiring to deflate the already troubled property values.

Perhaps all they need is  a dose of exposure to a certain breed of newly painted single family houses in rural Tamil Nadu. The worlds largest democracy may not necessarily lead the way in participatory governance, but it certainly showcases the power of 'free will' when it comes to the choice of exterior paint selection.

Tracing Bharatanatyam via Muybridge

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How can I break the pattern and have a Bharatanatyam  portraiture session not turn into another series of canned poses? Not that there is anything wrong with photographing static frames - there is a whole lot one could do just with the lighting while focusing on sheer portraiture. Yet they still are "poses" - a contrived exaggeration of those fleeting moments in a standard repertoire -  those that are entirely stripped of the energy and intensity that distinguish them in a  good performance.  No beads of perspirations reflecting the colored lights nor  visibly palpitating torsos preparing the body for the next rush of rhythmic movements in space.

 The following series of images were shot at my studio thanks to my muse, partner and artist-in-residence  - Smitha Radhakrishan. This is a truly collaborative work where we started the photoshoot with a series of standard poses, and I began employing extended shutter speeds to trace the trajectory of these poses from point A to point B. Eventually we proceeded to integrate "Abhinaya' - the emotive vocabularies - in the later shots.And I was pleasantly surprised to see that the camera was able to capture these emotions even when the body blurs in those few seconds. Based on the feedback from my 1.5"x2" camera LCD we went back and repeated the same steps till we got satisfactory results.

 There is really nothing new about integrating multiple frames in a single photographic frame. Eadweard Muybridge started doing this in mid 19th century. And these days its pretty easy to combine images and slap them with a "Motion Blur" filter in photoshop. However, if the point of the image is to make an artistic composition of a movement and emotional trajectory, I seriously doubt the usefulness of Photoshop. These are my first serious attempts in photographing movement vocabularies in Bharatanatyam in real time and I hope to do more of these sessions with accomplished artists in the next few years.

Can I capture the stories narrated through space and time with a single shutter exposure....we'll see!!

Shot with Nikon D700 and overhead halogen spot lights. No strobes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sector Omega-1 Wedding

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Greater Noida is an amorphous entity in throes of its growing pains. Walled apartment complexes stretches as far as the eyes can see - with a generous share of  vacant units serving as  speculative investments. Makeshift real-estate offices with gold colored plastic chairs come to life every morning -  on top of bare sidewalks adjacent to dusty expressways. The retail sector is yet to play catch up with the scattered residential developments and personal automobile is more a necessity than a luxury. The story of Greater Noida is probably not unlike the story of most other satellite towns that are sprouting beyond the burgeoning Indian megacities...

Perhaps the most beautiful milieu within "Sector Omega-1"  was our friends Neha and Abhishek's wedding venue. The decorations were spectacular, splashes of orange, red and maroon completely transforming the barren park within the housing society, and a visual treat to photograph. Neha was gorgeous and Abhishek just wouldnt stop smiling. If only our 18month old toddler's bedtime routine didnt start at 6.30pm....  As a welcome photographic surprise, the annoying hot lights from the videographers gifted my frames the much appreciated back-lit highlights that I would've never gotten with my flash...

Watch this space for more photos from the wedding !

 

Creepy Dolls in Boston Children's Museum

Off all places why would you have 80s-horror-movie-looking-eyebrow-less dolls in the Boston Childrens Museum?  Go figure !!! There certainly wasnt too many approving looks from fellow parents, when I removed the dolls from their resting places in dark corners for a day light photoshoot by the scenic windows.

 

"Old-School" in Chennai

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Thanks to our good friend and gracious host Malini Srinivasan, I had the unique opportunity of photographing her Guru - world renowned Bharathanatyam exponent and academician Prof.C.V. Chandrasekhar - at his home in Chennai while he was reviewing his choreographed composition with Malini.

Here I was in a tight 11'x11' room sticking out like a sore thumb right in the middle of an intense  one-to-one dance instruction. My subjects were performers in the truest sense -  they could just completely ignore me while focusing on their art and let me do my thing. Even though I had to shoot against the light without any reflectors, I just couldnt go too wrong with them !