A day of exhibits......

05 June 2010
Dhanmondi, Dhaka

Just came back from watching several exhibitions Saturday. After getting in touch with quite a few photographers in that nice afternoon, we decided to explore Dhanmondi, where all the action was! First went to Alliance Francaise, where the exhibition was on Rural Exodus. 12 photographers participated in this story-based photography exhibition. There were some really large prints, which were nice to see. But the exhibition wasn’t producing that nice feeling. To be honest, it hardly made any impact on any one of us visiting the exhibit. The stories were not there; rather there were two photos each from each story, which couldn’t give any idea about what the full story was about. It was a compromise, and ultimately it came to nothing. And the choice of pictures to bed hung on the wall was also poor in my view. Altogether, it was a real disappointment.

From Alliance Francaise, we went to Goethe Institute. And quite contrary to our expectations, the exhibit was closed! What the guard said, was that exhibits remain closed on holidays! It seemed like a ridiculous way of promoting something. Usually weekends see the highest number of visitors in any exhibit. But they seemed to be living in a completely different world altogether!

Anyway, we went to the third exhibit of the day, which was going on at Bengal Gallery. This was a solo exhibit from GMB Akash. The exhibit contained several photo-stories from several places, but all combined under one theme, “Soulscapes”. This was a really good exhibit with a lot of space to talk about. There were photo stories on Varanashi’s Burning Ghat, from a brothel in Dhaka, from cyclone Aila survivors in Satkhira, working children of Bangladesh, suicide farmers from India and old asylum. GMB Akash’s ability to use light has to be considered regarded highly. Some shots made it there only because of the exceptional light conditions. Some classic compositions were also there. The old asylum picture from Nepal with the two old people sleeping on the floor while a woman crosses them, was superb; and in my view, one of the best. His particular fascination for extreme shallow depth of field catches the eye. In some cases, one can debate on the philosophy behind that. There was one whole wall filled with words, and a couple of chairs were placed in front. The words described GMB Akash’s philosophy and his way of work. It shed light on some of the intimate memories he had while building that whole portfolio. Words of wisdom, words of experience. Liked those.

That’s how we ended our day of exhibit. It was a nice afternoon and evening spending the time with friends. And it was a productive day judging by the amount of discussion we had on the exhibits.

The brilliant Raghu Rai............

what a treat it was to visit Magnum photographer Raghu Rai's exhibition at Bengal Gallery!...... I've seen Raghu Rai's works and always found myself amazed...... but seeing those same pictures in front of your own eyes as massive printouts is something different..... for me, the visit to Raghu Rai's exhib was almost a 'life-changing' thing.......

each of his works were so expressive and descriptive that it was very difficult for me to move from one picture to another....... I had seen most of the displayed images online..... had admired them, but was never able to "touch" them....... most of the images had enough vastness to captivate a viewer for minutes...... they're not just photographs, they're a study of human life......

most of the images had the potential to look like cluttered images to the untrained eye...... where there were too many things in the image and everything was in focus..... but once one spent some time in front of the pics, he/she would begin to realise how much detail one image contained and how they completed the story that the photographer wanted to say....... those tiny details showed the keen eye of Raghu Rai; an eye for detail that is difficult to match......

each image contained a decisive moment that made it unique....... it made me wonder how on earth was he able to manage that moment in every single shot!....... that gave me an idea why Raghu Rai is considered one of the bests in the world......

his shots reminded me that every part of a frame is precious and should be utilised..... and what did he fill the frame with?...... was he always able to find something to fill the frame?....... yes! always!....... he filled the frames with life.......

most of the images had great depth in them...... most of the thing in focus........ they all combine to tell a story........ and yes, you needed those massive prints to realise that...... tiny thumbnail shots are no way to study the works of this genius......

one would be able to find that the images were not taken with utilisation of hardware's extremeties...... they were just as we see the world...... there was no use of extreme wide-angle distortion or flattened tele perspectives...... they gave you a feel that you're part of the image too....... you could touch life just by staring at them......

for me, this was a lesson in photography, a lesson in viewpoint, a lesson in philosophy........ we're so easily attracted to images that have very few elements in them...... they're so easy to read, even if you see them as a thumbnail...... but does it always tell the story?....... is life so uncluttered?....... is life so isolated?.......

Raghu Rai's prints have made think twice about what to do with a camera.......