Life through a lens

I was perusing some old photos today and came across photographs from Bhoomi Jathre held at Fireflies Ashram near Bangalore, India. This was a fantastic event held from dusk to dawn and with only word-of-mouth publicity. I went with Dada on the Yamaha RX-135 that Sukesh had lent me. Thanks to Sukesh, I was able to enjoy this event. Dada and I, both had a nice time enjoying quite a wide spectrum of music and dance performances. Looking at these photos that I have been hoarding for so long, I think I should share some photos from the evening.

These photos are from a dance performance called “Tale of a Tree” performed by the talented dancers from Shiri Dance Company. I wish I could credit the individual dancers but I do not know their individual names. I love the theatrical lighting on the dancers. All these photos are shot handheld without flash.

I visited Gwalior Fort again. It has been overcast and rainy the past few days but the Sun decided to shine again today, maybe, to mark the occasion of World Tourism Day. With Dada and Bobby, I drove up to Fort from Urwai Ghati instead of my usual hike up from the Gwalior Gate of the Fort. I had brought photos of Kushwahji and others that I had taken on my previous trips to the Fort and they felt happy on receiving the photos.

Man Mandir has undergone a fantastic cleanup. The blackened walls in the inside chambers have been cleaned and very few bats remain. The dark stairways leading to even darker circular dungeons now have lights as well to guide the tourists. This is where the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb had imprisoned his brother Murad and had him executed. I took some long exposures of the dungeons and Jauhar kund.

After photographing the colorful tiles of Man Mandir Palace and visiting the chambers in Man Singh Palace, we went to see some older monuments in the Fort.

Some things never change: the desire of us mortals to leave our name etched in stone for generations to see. I have been to so many beautiful monuments and places that have inspired misguided lovers and mortals to etch their names on the walls thereby disfiguring those for others. Sometimes, all this reminds me of ‘Ozymandias’ by PB Shelley or even of that beautiful song by Kansas - ‘Dust in the wind’ (esp the lines - “all we are is dust in the wind”).

This particular graffiti looked fresh and brought to mind my surprise at seeing graffiti on Eiffel Tower in Paris. Now I really digress but I must tell you this; still cracks me up on my stupidity. Having heard so much about the graffiti and the messages for Jim Morrison on his grave, I had gone to Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise in Paris. It started raining and finally I saw a mausoleum with people around and graffiti on the walls proclaiming how Jim is loved and lives on etc. It easily seemed the most popular tomb around and I photographed it and the music lovers from all angles. I am about to head out when I see an American tourist taking a picture of his boys in front of a comparatively small grave behind the tomb. Wondering whose grave it was, I check out the tombstone. Lo and behold! It was Jim Morrison’s! Having gone all the way to the cemetery, I had almost missed out the grave that I wanted to see. You can imagine how foolish I must have felt.

Anyways, back to Gwalior Fort: I sought out some of my favorite views of Vikram Mandir, ShahJahan Mahal and Karan Mahal.

I keep returning, hoping to find better, more dramatic light. Still have not found what I am looking for but hope remains. I am sure I will be back again, to relive the moments I have spent with near and dear ones while walking, playing around the monuments in the Fort. The clock keeps ticking as this very moment passes us by. ‘Dust in the wind’, indeed!

I love dance photography.

In Dec 2004, I was in Bangalore on an assignment. It was the last evening of Bangalore Habba ‘04 at the Palace grounds. A grand stage was set in front of the majestic Bangalore Palace. Thanks to Inayat, I was able to photograph a spirited dance performance by Nirupama-Rajendra and Abhinava Ensemble. All the photos in this post are from that performance.

I have been thinking of putting up a portfolio of dance photography on my website. Over the past two years, I’ve photographed quite many dance performances but I have just not been able to share the pictures on the web. Slowly, I am gleaning pictures from those performances.

Have you seen the studio photography of RJ Muna? About two and a half years back, I saw his dance photography. Even though those were studio images, my heart yearned to shoot dance performances. His images inspired me to shoot dance.

Photographing dance performances is fun and challenging as well. One has to shoot without flash, have fast film speed, an arsenal of fast lenses and like everything, you learn to anticipate movements and shoot on instinct.

Long back, I read somewhere -
“Work like You don’t need the money.
Love like You’ve never been hurt.
Dance like nobody’s watching.”

Maybe, I should add to this -
“Photograph something like you’ve never seen it before.”