Jahangir Art Gallery | Home page

The field of photography, which as I understand is a highly developed art form that has passed through various stages of development in its century long history determined by the technological transformation from film to digital formats and evolved through human effort and genius into the present form. Though one can feel and experience the beauty and joy of the art but it requires some expertise to venture into an informed appreciation.    

These are the observations of a lay person and please consider them as such.

To begin with your work is characterised by vividness and attention to diversity – of contexts, themes, time, moods, etc. 

In my view the perspective informing your work is evident in the spatial and temporal dynamics reflected therein. In fact, no idea or image is beyond time and space; imagination and meanings are context inspired and may transcend thereon. This is evident in the three thematic formats one can figure out in your work: old and new, modernity, human emotions across age and gender. The work captures the details of experiences and moods springing up from given ontological specificities. 

I am specifically charmed by the three photographs – of a child, an elderly woman and an old worker. Needless to say the context of them unambiguously and elegantly provide the cultural and social background - being urban, Maharastrian and Mumbayee. The detail shows the photographer’s eye to the angle, light and shade. The little girl looking up at the sky captures her innocent enchantment with something left to us to guess or imagine. The woman roasting corn on coals with details of container, corns and other vessels seeks to capture an important aspect of the urban life that comprises of the small trader cum working women and men in the informal sector that forms a large chunk of economy in terms of productivity, livelihood, services that take care of the needs of a vast majority of population especially in the urban society. The elderly worker who could be a dubbawala or hamali or porter presents a countenance that reflects the hard reality of a worker weather beaten as the wrinkles on his face bear witness to. By capturing the subaltern woman and man and their simple joys and involvement in work the artist has reminded us of the important call of art that is nothing is beyond its scope and beauty has to be looked in the aesthetic of labour and work that sustains life. The unity of art and life ought to form the centrality of any genuine art. 

The remaining photographs capture the different sites and symbols of old and new. 

Modernity being the moving force of contemporary life cannot but engage the attention of any artist as its contradictions, predilections and enigmas manifesting in numerous motifs and even unpredictable ways form the crux of the process. If the huge engineering structures and technological marvels are one aspect of modernity and development then the Memorial for Holocaust helps us to reflect and not to forget the darker side of modernity and state. Nazism and its project of ‘final solution’ was undoubtedly an ugly side of modernity. The memorial shows and demonstrates the hatred, bestiality and violence humans claiming to be modern are capable of: To forget is to repeat. Art forms like painting, cinema, photography are potent media of recollection and remembering through which it is possible to try to avoid their repetition.     

In this collection, the presence of Socrates is eminently relevant as Socratic vision premised on the centrality of ‘Reason’ and its primacy over emotions, ‘appetites’, desires presents hope  in the dystopian reality we find ourselves increasingly engulfed in. Socratic dialogic tradition of affirmation, contestation and resolution can help us in reasoning a way out of our predicaments, dilemmas and enigmas. Photography as an art form can be an important mode of argumentation and thereby engage us in positive dialogue.

While complimenting him on his present work I wish Kabeer the best for his future pursuits and endeavours.  

With Congratulations and Best wishes,

Srinivasulu Karli,                Professor, University of Hyderabad