The Director’s Cut

On March 25 at the India Habitat Centre,Singh will be revealing her first photography book Dancescapes which documents performing artistes over the last five decades. With over 250 photographs,Dancescapes also has notes from personalities such as Aman Nath of Neemrana Foundation,Bharatanatyam dancer Justin McCarthy (who also teaches at SBKK),photojournalist Dilip Mehta (Deepa Mehta’s brother),and Kapila Vatsyayan,scholar on classical dance and Indian art,among others. The book launch will be followed by an exhibition curated by Alka Pande,by the same name,with 70 photographs on display.

The artist had to literally sift through a 1,00,000 photographs in five days. She has not titled the photographs because each photo “should speak for itself”. Among the riveting photographs,one can see several figures in motion such as Akram Khan,Raja Radha Reddy,Pt Birju Maharaj,Sonal Mansingh,Uma Sharma,Leela Samson and Hema Malini among others,their surreal figures caught in the moment.

Singh’s first exhibition was in 1996 at Shridharani Art gallery,organised by theatre person,Ebrahim Alkazi,on “Women in Performing Arts”. Her penchant for taking pictures took flight after this show and she has shown at Art Heritage,Delhi,and London’s Nehru Centre since.

“We’ve got ears,but we don’t hear. We have eyes,but we don’t see. I document all that I can,” she says. Hence,when not with her camera,Singh is also known to record music performances,with or without consent. “I was truly badnaam for recording music surreptitiously. During late Pt Ravi Shankar’s silver jubilee concert,recordings were not allowed. But I fixed recorders in three places. He was livid initially but later asked me for those recordings,” she says. Similarly,Singh secretly video recorded one of Pt Birju Maharaj’s performances. “Two days later,he praised that recording. This is gratifying,because we’re not going to use them commercially,” she says.

Apart from digitising all the videos,recordings and photographs she has ever taken,her next project is photographs of theatrical performances and music. “Theatre makes for exciting photographs. There are photos of Naseeruddin Shah and Zohra Sehgal on stage and of intimate moments such as Ebrahim Alkazi’s birthday,” she says. Another pending project is the large collection of her father’s photographs of Delhi’s iconic structure, Kamani,and various musicians who used to meet for impromptu jugalbandis at that time. “Just 10 days before his 90th birth anniversary,he gave me an attache with 100 negatives of these photographs. No wonder he gave me a camera when I was just six and truly understood what went into this.”

The exhibition begins on March 25 at Visual Arts Gallery,India Habitat Centre,till April 2. Contact 24682001