One of the most interesting lines in Susan Sontag’s writings was as follows, “To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed – putting oneself onto a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge – and, therefore, like power.” When you think of appropriation in our modern society, it is almost always a negative concept. Sontag offers the idea of appropriating a moment through photography, which appeals to me artistically and allows you to see a positive or at least constructive form of the word appropriation.
While observing Singh’s photographs of the Ganges, I could not leave with the idea that I now know what those people experienced, and yet I was able to feel a connection and understand nonetheless. Singh’s photographs put a focus on life, and captures the simultaneously traditional and modern India that he was experiencing. There is an entire series of photos with the Ambassador car, which utilizes mirrors and strategically rolled down windows to display modern inventions, like the car itself, with the contrast of vast landscapes and mountain ranges, untouched by industrialization. The feeling that his photographs left me were those of uncertainty in where culture is heading, especially due to this new modernization, and questioning what parts of their tradition and culture must be preserved or forgotten. This is seen in one photograph particularly well, where there is an unknown driver, driving in the rain, and in the mirror you can see a woman who is not driving, but walking along the pathway with various bags and items that are probably necessary for her survival, and she is trekking them for an unknown time to an unknown place. It is likely that she has travelled a long way due to the fact that there are no signs of civilization in the frame of view, meanwhile Singh and his driver are well off inside the safety and comfort of a vehicle.
His photographs were able to capture the moment as it was, and with enough depth that the viewer could start to feel the situation. Many of his photographs feature bustling market places and crowds that give off a sense of life and excitement that the viewer can feel. The fact that Singh is able to capture these fast moving scenes in a way where everything seemed to have slowed down just for him to capture the moment says a lot, in my opinion, on his skills as a photographer. Nothing in the frames seem rushed or blurred, it is just crisply interpreting the scene for the viewer. As a viewer, we are not appropriating their culture or their livelihood, however just appropriating an understanding due to the photograph, that allows us to imagine life in the subject’s perspective. In other words, we can imagine being there for a moment, and gaining power through that, however the photograph does not allow us to believe we were there, we are strictly observers.
