Rear-view mirror reflections

To try and label the work of 29-year-old photographer,Shraddha Uday Borawake would be doing injustice to her ambition. She has recently moved out of New York to return to Pune and set-up a base here,and is having her first exhibition at Swig – Bar & Eatery,Koregaon Park,tonight. Her photography work started when she was 19 years old ,and spanned her work under established photographers,freelancing,and academics across India and the US. The varied exposure and a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study,New York University,has helped crystallise a style that is as difficult to define as it is to pursue. “We always try to segregate art from photography,but a lot of people today use mix-media. That’s why I look at labels and break out of them,” she says.

Borawake has done fashion,editorial as well as fine art photography. She has also used photography to strike up community dialogue,like when she took pictures of female construction workers from the US and India,and showed it to them to strike an understanding. “The idea is to use photos in a critical manner and allow a dialogues between the subjects,” she says. She is also partnering with a German choreographer-dancer in providing mix-media visuals as backdrop to the stage performances. “Whenever anyone asks me what I do,I answer depending on the person. I sometimes say I am a photographer to keep it simple,but if I have the time,I explain that I am an artist who is using photography as a medium.”

Tonight,a collection of her photographs called ‘Admit One’ will be on display. The pictures are black and white reflections on the lives of American female amateur boxers. What makes the journey more personal for Borawake is that the photos have been clicked,processed and printed by her. “It is really the old,traditional analogue style,” she says. “I wanted to show the true blacks and the true whites of the photos. So some photos will be very dark,while some will be bright white. I wanted to show the tension in the environment around.”

Her earlier exhibitions too have tried to break ground with method and presentation. One previous installation series showed photos taken by her reflected on to rear-view mirrors bought from a chor bazaar,fixed on walls like television sets. “It is in real a fleeting moment,but you see it again in the rear-view mirror,” she explains. “My work is always drastically different from the previous one,it’s never in a box. It’s a very good thing for me because I get to explore much more.”

(‘Admit One’ will be open at Swig – Bar & Eatery,Koregaon Park,from 8pm tonight)