Here and Now

Eight photographers have come together for an exhibition titled Juvenilia Juxtaposed at Gallery Ragini in Lado Sarai,in an attempt to document images of contemporary India. “Many things that we see today might not exist some years later and these photographs might seem nostalgic then,” says Nidhi Jain,director of Gallery Ragini,as she looks at a photograph of Udit Kulshreshtha titled Piyau that features a stall selling water in earthen pots. “Soon it might get hard to find these,” adds Jain.

On the walls are 39 other photographs that have been put together in the last two months. If Sephi Bergerson impresses again with his food photography,Anshika Varma has juxtaposed the old world with the modern. In a market where branded clothes dominate,she focusses on a tailor working on his sewing machine in Spazio Lotte while Blue Book- Invocation has books placed in wooden stands for reading. In Ashok Paul’s photograph titled Cool dude with his favourite buffalo a young kid sports Ray Ban glares and poses with a buffalo. “It has a comic appeal and yet makes a point,” observes Jain.

In Kulshreshtha’s photographs the streets of India find representation,as he travels with his camera from Baroda to Mathura and Old Delhi. In Parked and Washed he has captured an old Bajaj scooter parked at the entrance of a home that has a saree hung for drying from the balcony. “This was in a narrow street in Mandavi. The house would at least be over 180 years old,” says Kulshreshtha.

The exhibition at Gallery Ragini is on till September 26