JOIN USIf you are visiting Delhi’s premier cultural hub India Habitat Centre any time soon, do make it a point to see photographer Jagdev Singh’s work on exhibition ‘Delhi... Where Life Never Stops.’
Jagdev, a street photographer, has taken some really candid shots varying from its landscapes, monuments and moments to people. Many layers of life in the Capital can be uncovered at the exhibit at Delhi ‘O’ Delhi restaurant foyer.
Jagdev Singh wears not one but many hats. He graduated in engineering but did his post graduation studies in management, and since then, has immersed himself in his passion - photography. His work has been displayed at various shows and in February 2010, he even won an all expenses paid trip to Thailand by Shot India.
Delhi seems to be the muse of the talented lensman. He has shot the city in day, dusk and night indicating his love and passion to discover the city in different times. For Delhi he says, “There is a saying by the Confucian scholar Zhou Dunyi: ‘I love the lotus because, while growing from mud, it is unstained.’ Such is the spirit of life reflected in the streets of Delhi.”
“One gets to see the intense undercurrent of life running deep in its city life. Being home to more than 16 million people, life plays a different stroke at every corner here. Be it the frenzy in market places, street food, street celebrations or wall graffiti – life never stops in the streets of Delhi.”
So in Jagdev’s collection, we see shots of the Safdarjung Tomb – as quiet as always, hidden behind groves of palm trees and peculiarly, with an empty cycle-cart in the foreground. Then there is the Jama Masjid with devotees squatting on its endless stairs, the winding alleys of Jantar Mantar and a stellar evening shot of India Gate.
There are also quaint but symbolic street shots of chaiwallas, barbers at work and the chaotic markets of Old Delhi. He has caught many vivid moments such as a shop with many small and big clocks – all striking 7:20, the ‘pigeonsquare’ at Connaught Place, a chhole bhature shop and a woman in a veil.
Jagdev seems to love to capture moods from people’s daily life and the life of the city, in the process. His work untangles the complex appearance of things, revealing a fine sense for a moment to pause and reflect. If, for nothing else, visit his exhibit for a sense of that calm in the chaos of the city we call Delhi.