Framing eternity

The spiritual has a brush with the material world in Happenings - Photodiary of Luminous Moments. Photographer Ashvin Mehta has snapped m...

The spiritual has a brush with the material world in Happenings 8211; Photodiary of Luminous Moments. Photographer Ashvin Mehta has snapped man-made objects 8212; garbage cans, banners, iron benches, surfboards, signboards 8212; against very natural ones 8212; ponderous mountains, sea waves, beach sand, deep green leaves. The point where plastic has a rub with the bodiless is a luminous moment, preserved for posterity in his Pentax.

Mehta says he photographed the first happening8217; during one of his travels in the eighties, when he saw a quot;brilliant yellowquot; rubbish bin near a mountain pass at Wales, Britian. That unpredictable flash into a different way of seeing was the first of several such happenings, which map several countries and continents.

quot;If you could call Kabir a weaver, you could call me a photographer,quot; says Mehta. His frames don8217;t just make for pretty pictures, but also reveal a peek into a mind that8217;s in search of questions. Of a journey riddled by dreams, hope, fame, tranquility, turbulence,death, the very experience that is life itself. This is also the first time he has written captions for his work, says Mehta. The captions describe what Mehta feels is the unseen, the unmanifest hidden within a seemingly clever union of light and colour.

Interestingly, Mehta8217;s background reveals some rather mundane and material happenings: He graduated as an MSc in biochemistry from G S Medical College in 1952 and then joined a pharmaceutical company, where, he says, he honed his aesthetic skills. His pictures were first published in The Illustrated Weekly and he held his first exhibition at Gallery Chemould in 1966. Since then, he has held several one-man exhibitions in Mumbai, Delhi and England.

Mehta has also published four books: Himalaya 8211; Encounters with Eternity, Coasts of India, Gifts of Solitude and 100 Himalayan Flowers. He says he has six books waiting for a dekko, on themes which foreign publishers hung up on Rajasthan and Indian festivals will find hard to digest 8211; atribute to abstract paintings, bicycles and primeval landscapes. quot;Foreign publishers have equated Indian photography with Raghu Rai and Raghubir Singh,quot; grumbled Mehta. quot;One publisher very seriously told me, why don8217;t you change your name to Ashin Mayta? They just don8217;t associate pure photography with Indians.quot;

Himalayas itself was rejected by 30 publishers. But Mehta feels that quot;No artist is inherently rich, but is enriched by struggle. Look at Satyajit Ray. He sold his wife8217;s jewellery to make Pather Panchali. However, the struggle for livelihood shouldn8217;t dampen your creativity.quot;

Mehta quit the corporate world for good in 1973. He also quit Mumbai 8212; quot;too pollutingquot; 8212; in the eighties and has now set up world on one acre of land at Tithal, in Gujarat. From there, this philosopher-photographer makes his journeys to the world outside and to his inner self for some more moments of luminosity.

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Happenings 8211; Photodiary of Luminous Moments at the Piramal Art Gallery, National Centre for thePerforming Arts, till March 27, 10.30 am to 6.30 pm.