Colour, through the lens

In the frame

Spring is in the air. And a photo exhibition celebrates colour. Much-travelled, prize-winning photographer Mala Mukerjee is in the City to hold her exhibition ‘Feast of colour’ at the India International Centre.

How does the photographer view colour? “Like all photographers of my generation, I started at a time when there was no colour in photography. The world was bathed in colour but the photographer’s world remained monochromatic. It was a huge handicap. The arrival of the colour film in the 1930s liberated us from this constraint.

We acquired new skills, perfected new technology and experimented for years before colour pictures could gain parity with the high standards set by black and white photography,” Mala says. “Today, most photographers move freely between Black and White and Colour photography. Though I admit I’ve been working more in colour than in monochrome in recent years,” she adds.

Mala taught photography at The School, KFI, in Chennai during 1986-1989. In 1993, she graduated in Applied Art and Design Studies from the London Guildhall University. She was awarded the Art Prize by the Owen Rowley Art Foundation in London. In 2007, the Academy of Visual Media, Delhi, honoured Mala with the ‘Achievement Award’ for outstanding contribution to photography.

The photographs on display have been collected by Mala over the years. There are abstract photographs of flowers, walls, Kolkata’s typical, old dilapidated buildings and bright green doors and windows. There are no human forms, at the most, you can spot a man in a photograph that hangs on a wall. What is common in all the pictures is the profusion of colour – red, green, blue, yellow and orange. The photographs have been taken in different cities of India and abroad.

Mala says, “Light is a photographer’s friend. Light’s spectrum has as many hues as the world we live in. The most mysterious of all matter, light changes all the time. And when it does, it has an impact on the objects it illuminates, revealing ever newer dimensions of colour, form and texture. Like the face of a bride lit up by the soft glow of dusk, routine objects are transformed magically under light’s restless, ethereal, incandescence. As a
photographer, I’ve tried to capture those fleeting moments and present them to the viewer. Welcome to a feast of colours.”