In the Grand Scheme of Things

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“This is my personal view of humanity,” he says in broken English, peeking, ever too often, into his phone, checking for translation to put his thought across, “I often took photographs of people in a state of solitude, surrounded by these spectacular landscapes.” The photographs have been taken over a period of two years, travelling across diverse cultures.

His background as a freelance art director, along with work in advertising, graphic design, packaging and publishing for more than 25 years, shows in every photograph. “Since I have worked as a graphic designer, I am naturally inclined towards shapes and lines,” he says. His works capture his sense of aesthetics in a spectacular fashion, be it a sea of graves in Morocco, forming an optical texture, as a singular man emerges from the background, or one taken in Bikaner, of a man walking alone along a railway track. The black-and-white format, allows few elements and offers an introspective gaze.

The artist’s previous work in India demands attention as well. Tripodi, who has published photography books such as Da lontano and Da vicino, had come out with Namaste, soon after his 2012 trip to Rajasthan for a reportage. The photographs in Namaste are unlike the present collection, where figures are obscure and placed in a distance. Colours dominate his lens and stunning portraits of his subjects appear in isolation, be it a Rajasthani man in a colourful safa or a woman in a vibrant sari. The current exhibition, however, has taken reigns of Tripodi’s imagination and even as he plans on travelling to Gujarat and Kerala during his current visit, he hopes to take the show to other cities.

The exhibition is at Kamaladevi Complex, Main Building, IIC, till July 16