Arts/Culture
Images of Invisible
India
by V. Radhika
'Bharat', a spectacular
photo exhibition organized by the Toronto-based not-for-profit
organization, World Heritage Project (WHP), featured 42
never-before-viewed images of India, captured by some of world's top
photographers - including Steve McCurry, Mary Allen Mark and James
Nachtwey.
The show, which ran for over a month, was inaugurated in early September
5. It was held at the National Film Board in Toronto. As its name
indicates ('Bharat' is the Hindi word for 'India'), the show turned the
spotlight on the country. From spectacular images of monuments and
landscapes to vignettes from daily life, each shot presented a slice of
life and cultural heritage of India. But the exhibition was not just
about visual delights; proceeds from the sale of the snapshots will be
directed to grassroots organizations in India to help fund crucial
development programmes.
The practice of ploughing back funds into the country celebrated
photographically will continue in subsequent shows as well, says Sandy
Reimer, Founder and Chairman, WHP, and the person behind the unique
show. A Toronto-based photographer and filmmaker, Reimer says WHP aims
to harness "the power of art and media to tell the story of our planet's
most important natural and cultural places".
In fact, the organization will, in future, tap the creative resource
pool from the world over to produce international events and multimedia
projects that "celebrate and preserve the beauty and diversity of our
planet and its people".
WHP's inaugural event, 'Bharat' also featured images by Canadian talent
such as Jag Gundu, Malcolm Armstrong and Reimer.
Each photograph leads the viewer on a visual journey of India's daily
life and cultural heritage. Steve McCurry of National Geographic,
famously remembered for his cover photograph of the light-eyed Afghan
girl, infuses life into monuments. While any amateur photographer can
capture the splendor of Agra's Taj Mahal, it takes the expertise of
McCurry to portray the marble masterpiece in a unique perspective: Two
of his photographs have the Taj as a backdrop. While one captures the
monument's reflection in the river - from which a man is scooping water
- the other reveals the white marble structure peeping out from the
smoky haze of a steam engine.
It is the juxtaposition of the daily lives of people with landscape and
monuments that makes McCurry not just a photographer but a storyteller
too. His photograph of women huddled in a desert storm is a cameo of the
hardships that define desert life. The women's bright skirts and 'odhnis'
(long head stoles) swirling in the dust as they converge for comfort
against the barren desertscape, is one of Reimer's favorites. "It is
highly evocative for me, because what it says is that when a storm
comes, we gather and community offers comfort," she says. One of the
most expensive photos on display, the Rajasthani moment was tagged at a
whopping US$23,000.
Her other favorite is his rainstorm. "We often see India with bright
colors but the monsoon brings a different face to the country and I
think he has captured that," she says.
Images by New York photographer Mary Ellen Mark, who specializes in
portraits, showcased India through the people that inhabit its different
spaces. Mark, who is known for her portraits of celebrities like Nicole
Kidman and Bill Clinton, has captured people as they go about their
lives. Be it a 'burqa'-clad (veiled) woman, a schoolgirl at a train
terminal in Mumbai, or a boy in a church, all her subjects look straight
into the camera - as if challenging the viewers to get to know them. It
is not just people; in Mark's lens, even places do the same. "She
captures not just the place but its soul as well," sums up Reimer.
In a sense, that is what the exhibition has done: captured the essence
of India through its monuments, cultural practices and the pulse of
everyday life.
Toronto photographer Jag Gundu's image of street girls expertly projects
the young urchins' zest for life despite living amidst extreme poverty.
McCurry catches the vibrancy of Holi (a popular Hindu festival of
colors, marking the advent of spring) in Rajasthan. For other
photographers, images of the everyday conundrum of a Mumbai street; or
the pulsating railway platforms of the megacity have their own tales to
narrate.
The exhibition also offered glimpses of various monuments and
archaeological sites that dot India's rich landscape: From the Taj Mahal
(Agra) and Humayun's Tomb (New Delhi) in the north and Ajanta and Ellora
caves, near Aurangabad, in Maharashtra to Hampi and the remains of
Vijayanagar in Karnataka in the south.
The response to 'Bharat' has been encouraging. Reimer says WHP would
like to take it to at least six big cities across the world but, of
course, that would depend on sponsorships.
The reason for choosing India, the country she calls her "second home"
is partly because of her familiarity with the country (she has been
visiting India for over two decades now - "long before it was 'hot',"
she chuckles), its cultural and architectural wealth and also the need
for active intervention.
Says Reimer, "I saw the beauty, but also the suffering and hardship."
Here is where the idea of setting up WHP germinated: to celebrate a
heritage and, at the same time, give something back to society. "So the
idea was to get people excited about the country and help empower it,
particularly the women and children, through education and sustainable
development programmes. There's no point in having a shiny Taj Mahal if
people in the vicinity don't have access to proper medical care and
education."
Having zeroed in on India for its inaugural exhibit, Reimer then got in
touch with the photographers to lend their works. WHP commissioned Mark
to visit India in 2006 to shoot pictures. To bring in some local talent,
Gundu and Armstrong were brought on board.
The exhibition is just the beginning as there are more components to the
Bharat project, Reimer says. 'The Treasures of India' series will be a
showcase of the best that India has to offer, in the form of a vast
multimedia collection - books, DVDs, television series, photo
exhibitions and other multimedia experiences - showcasing all the sites.
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