Hi,
This time i am not going to put up any photograph, as i am just back from my first ever Photography Exhibition viewing. I have been wanting to attend one since ages but never really gave it that much of a thought. Not this time though.

Kala Ghoda, the undoubted Art District of Mumbai nagariya, was the destination. This place is so creatively charged, with artists putting paint to canvas, a cartoonist creating a mind blowing replica of your for a mere 100 bucks, or the regular Art-y junta hanging outside Jehangir Art Gallery, with along flowing beards, kurtas and that oh-so-cliched Jholas around their shoulders. Exibitions are the lifeblood of this art district showcasing the works of some of the cities finest artists in the hallowed Art Galleries, or, of upcoming artists, in the Open Air Art Gallery on the pavements. Any which way, for a person inclined to the visual art medium, Kala Ghoda is a mecca!

Bombay Mix – an exhibition by a documentary photographer named, Ketaki Seth. It consisted all B/W prints, taken from a period of over 10 years, documenting Mumbai’s street life. All the pictures had a human presence in them. What attracted me towards the pictures was its rawness and at the same time the photographer had some definite funda behind each click. The pictures, most of them were unconventional to a novice like me. As in i observed that in most of the pictures, symmetry and focussing wasnt as stressed as i would have expected it. But then when i read the title of each photograph, i knew that it didnt matter cos each picture had some definate story in it. That was left to the imagination of the viewer. Like there was this picture of 2 girls and a granny, or the one of the boy sleeping on the footpath and another man playin the flute, or the nuns at Walkeshwar, or the two men and a shadow etc. All i can say is that it was a visual treat.

After the Bombay Mix exhibition at Bodhi Gallery, Kala Ghoda, i headed to NCPA . It had an exhibition by a group of 6 photographers, called FujiFilm SuperSix Wildlife Photography exhibition. The Photographers are : Gul Gulrajani, Hira Punjabi, Ramnath Chandrashekhar, Sanat Shodhan, S. Tiwari and Sarvana Kumar. The concept was cool. Fujifilm and Jindal Photo selects 6 photographers every year and organises this exhibition to promote photography. The theme here was something that i have never tried in my experiments with the lens, so was really looking forward to it.

Contrary to previous exhibition, this one was a color photo exhibit. The pictures documented the wildlife in India and at times Africa. One distinct quality in all the pictures was the use of DOF in almost every picture, most of the time shallow DOF. Needless to say, the hardware used by the photographers must run into lakhs of ruppees, but the photographs were just mindblowing. The tiger was captured in so many candid moments, just brought a smile on my face.

After having seen these two exhibitions, i just realised how much more i have to learn in this field. These 2 exhibitions were a real eye opener for me. From here on i have decided to see atleast 1 photography exhibition a month and keep the photography flame in me alive by reading more on the topic, till the day i host my own exhibition someday;)

Take Care

Ciao!