Picture the following.
Droplets on a windscreen. A road surrounded by rolling green hills. A woman seeking shelter.
A crowded marketplace. Hanging baskets. A middle-aged man drinking from a jug.
Waves crashing against a rock. A turquoise scarf with a patterned silver border. A red dot delicately placed in the center of an old woman’s forehead.
How do these images make you feel? What emotions do they stir up in you? Do they stir up any at all?
For me, they do. When I saw these images last week, during our visit to the Modernism on the Ganges: The Photographs of Raghubir Singh exhibit at the Met Breuer, I recall being completely captivated by them. I recall standing in the museum being wonderstruck. I recall feeling amazed.
Raghubir Singh’s photographs spoke to me in a way that Marcel Sternberger’s didn’t. With Sternberger’s, everything was quite literally and figuratively black and white. I looked at the images and saw them for what they were – portraits of people. They were beautiful but they weren’t very thought provoking. They didn’t have me wondering why the photographer made the choice to capture this particular moment.
Singh’s did. While looking at each and every one of his photographs the questions of why he chose this particular group of people, why he shot the image from this angle, and even why he picked this time of day crossed my mind. I wanted to know the reasons behind his stylistic choices. I wanted to know how he decided that taking a photograph of the Kerala landscape would look better through a car window and why to him the pedestrians of Mumbai were important. I wanted to know why a man drinking from a jug held meaning.
And then it occurred to me. The saying “writers write what they know” also applies to photographers.
Singh took photographs of his native country of India. Through his images, we see how he viewed his homeland. We see his thoughts on the people, the culture, and the environment. To be cliché, we see India through his eyes.
Someone else could take similar photos, and the effect could be the exact opposite. The love and appreciation present in Singh’s work, may not exist in another’s. Someone else’s photographs may also show barefoot men seated in a circle and women in traditional sarees, but instead of admiration, they might convey disgust.
That’s how photography works. Both images are capturing real moments but can be interpreted in two completely different ways. The emotions expressed is dependent upon the lens of the photographer and his or her own personal preferences. Every choice that a photographer makes, whether it be conscious or unconscious, impacts the images they capture.
-Alyssa Motilal
It is very interesting to think that each moment he captured is unique because of the love and appreciation he contributed to each one. This is his understanding of his country and we are lucky to see it filled with his twist on things. Your blog post made me realize these things, thank you!
I always love how you start off by describing certain incomplete ideas. These descriptions make your post unique from others. I also find it interesting how you state that if someone else did it, we would not notice the love and the appreciation. I think that this mostly has to do with the fact that Singh is from India. This connection to his motherland is rooted with it being a part of him. I think that others may have been able to appreciate, but not love like Singh. Great blog!
Wow, this blog post is great. I agree with you that Singh’s photographs were incredibly though provoking. I never asked myself why I thought the photographer would chose to capture the moment at that particular time of day. I though that that was a very interesting analytical point you mentioned. I like how you applied the quote, “writers write what they know” to the photographer as well. It really made me think deeply about how Singh’s photos are a projection of his inner self, not merely a capturing what was in front of him.