In photographic pursuit of solitude

For all photography enthusiasts in the city, the All India Fine Arts and Craft Society on Rafi Marg is holding a wonderful exhibition entitled ‘Seeking Solitude’.

On display are the works of three young lensmen and women who have captured moments in seclusion and in the quiet company of nature, away from the hustle-bustle of work and the city. Each is a meditation on the beauty of the still world around us which we often fail to notice in the mad rush of everyday life.

For a sneak-peek into this beautiful world, peer into the lens of Rashmi Rai,
Kamna Dhankhar and Pallav Kaushik.

All three are students of a private institute in Uday Park called the Munish Khanna Academy. Their teacher, an acclaimed lensman himself and the curator of this exhibition, Munish Khanna, says, “As artists, we are often pursuing our work and our subjects alone. Day after day and year after year, we strive for that apex point of solitary reflection which gives birth to creative works of art.

Therefore, the title ‘Seeking Solitude’ which means that we haven’t achieved that zenith of spiritual connect as yet but the quest is on.”

Rashmi Rai, the most experienced of the three, has seemingly found that connect in quiet landscapes – an abandoned fishing boat on a beach, a calm horizon on stoic mountains, a pujari going about his religious rituals in the lonely confines of a small temple – there is a story in each of her photographs.

Kamna Dhankhar’s shots veer more towards portraitures with a woman smoking on the corner of a street, a man reflected in a patch of water on the road, even a tiny bird taking a stroll on a beach with its shadow following. Each of her subjects, and
pictures, have a character and personality.

The youngest of them, Pallav Kaushik, has found his muse in foliage and leaves. With stunning dexterity, he has demonstrated over a dozen ways in which to capture leaves of trees. The young and the old, the flat and the richly-veined, the precariously hanging to the fallen and rotting – Pallav has canvassed them all and more in an interesting fetish.

Catch this exhibition at the AIFACS Gallery from 11 am to 7 pm. It is on from
August 20 to 26.