Photo Op

With frames of some of India’s most celebrated photographers to choose from,curator Sandeep Biswas aimed at showcasing what he describes as the new movement in photography in India through this exhibition. “It is beyond that one image,and how it incorporates new thoughts. In the last few years,artists who hadn’t initially dealt with photography have merged alternate thoughts to take it to a new level. It becomes part of multimedia and creates a new form of expression,” says Biswas,as he introduces the show titled — A Tribute to the Lens — that is on at MF Husain Art Gallery,Jamia Millia Islamia.

On display are over sixty photographs celebrating the medium,from the lens of the well-known to the students of Jamia Millia Islamia. If Arunkumar HG has digitally morphed skyscrapers onto mustard fields,Vicky Roy tries to humour the viewer with a colourful grid of 28 lockers with men’s briefs hung from their doors to dry. Malkait Singh’s life-size photograph on canvas of an elderly man wearing a blue turban with dead roosters hanging off from each hand seems almost alive; and Kulwant Roy’s black and white images portray the tranquillity of Kashmir in 1950. N Pushpamala’s 35 minute video on her trip to Paris in 2005 intersperses black and white photos of the city with subtle traffic noises,and textile designer Gopika Nath’s three-minute Re-thread extends the physical movement of sewing into a dance form.

“We wanted to look at new dimensions of photography by incorporating emerging trends and traditional mediums and encourage interaction between senior photographers and our students,” says Syed Ghazamfar Zaidi,dean for Fine Arts at Jamia,who is also a wildlife photographer. The purpose is re-instated with the placement of photographs at the exhibition. Near the entrance are the works of 20 students from the fine arts and mass communication department. Master of Fine Arts student Padmalika Bhattacharya,is one of the students,whose 16×24 inch black and white photograph captures a vast expanse of clouds from a small cottage window in Mussorie.

The exhibition is on till September 10,at the MF Husain Art Gallery,Jamia Millia Islamia.

Contact 9810161032