A meditation on photographs-1
I wonder why I keep coming back to this image every now and then. Maybe because this image has infinite possibilities of stories that portray the urban mundane and a window of spontaneity that takes you toward escapism .
I wanted to describe the setting first but then I realized the setting is secondary. I was sucked into this image because of this man in the foreground. I kept looking at the picture and slowly the man merged into space, gradually my eyes moved towards the background and then I noticed the leftovers .
The way my eyes moved inside this image, from front to back, I will try to describe the image in a similar manner. Maybe this how our eyes hover inside a given frame.
Whatever is close to the eye is more important!
This man may be in his mid-forties, perfectly shaped Walrus mustache, a double chin, oversized glasses whose rims have a nude tone that perfectly blends with his bright peachy complexion, a white shirt with a brown tie, under a blue overcoat, is clutching a giant novel in his mouth.
The subject feels interrupted for sure, captured in the middle of something.
In the background, the city glares, a woman wearing dark blue is looking in the opposite direction. The sun is about to go down, well… it sure feels like dusk, the receding sunlight on those buildings. I can almost feel the warmth on my skin, the yellow texture, the cars,the colors and the loud soundscapes .
This man who lives a monotonous life in the midst of ever-growing urban decay has just left from his office and is about to catch a train or maybe he will hire a taxi, maybe a bus. He suddenly remembers that he has forgotten something on his desk, something that he was supposed to take back home. Aah..it was the cigarette packet that he bought this morning from a one-eyed homeless man with a deep voice.
He chooses to go through his office bag first and look for that cigarette packet. He hated the idea of going back to his cubicle again. Who the hell wants to go to the office twice a day? So he decides to hold this book in his mouth while his hands search for that packet of cigarettes. The face and the book compliment each other. Both are huge.
The humor, the absurdity, urban anonymity all captured in this frame turns it into a moment that represents our society where everyone is seeking an escape. Just that everyone does not find a place in a frame like this.
Maybe that book is only an escape and I guess it tells an epic story of some other world where people are blessed with magical powers while some feel these magical powers are not blessings but a curse. They dream of a normal and a sad life just like those weak homo sapiens who live on a tiny blue planet and remain stuck in a kafkaesque loop for decades.
In this story, some use the magic for the betterment of the society and some, to seek power. The classic good vs bad story set in a fictional world where mountains and trees talk to each other and sky scrappers want to destroy nature.
And this man loves it so much that he will eat the story alive the way he eats his hamburger.
This image made me realize that absurdity lives very close to the mundane moments of life.
*based on a conversation with one of the most inspiring persons I have ever come across in my life.
kahaani waale ki diary 