New Delhi, July 3 (Inditop.com) A pair of ice cubes in a glass of rippling rose syrup – the famous rooh afza of Chandni Chowk – looks good enough to drink from the framed photograph in which it casts its rosy spell. Pair it with the sizzling chicken tikka kebabs sputtering on iron skewers in the frame next door. Yummy!
The taste, sights and sounds of Old Delhi – especially the area around Jama Masjid and Red Fort – could not become more vivid than those in the 20-odd photographs titled “Delhi – Beyond the Lens” that are on display at the Fuschia Tree Gallery at East of Kailash in the capital.
The photographs are the best of the pick, shot by amateur lensmen who are part of a project called “Dilli 6”, a six-month exercise of practical and theory workshops to chronicle the capital and its history.
The photographers are a motley lot. Eleven-year-old Vimanu Devgan, a student of Modern School in Barakhamba Road, is the brain and eyes behind a simple black and white photograph of the Ustaad Chaiwalla near Jama Masjid who sells hundreds of cups of “cutting chai (milky tea portioned in glasses)” to his customers throughout the day.
“Photographs always look better in black and white. I have learnt how to create depth of field (distance between two objects) from my team leader Sephi Bergerson, who taught us compositions, angles and camera techniques of spot photography in the crowded streets of old Delhi,” Vimanu told IANS.
Twenty-two amateur participants were led by veteran cameramen Sephi Bergerson, Nagender Chhikara and Bikash Das.
A series of three images of Jama Masjid in black and white stood out for their depth, play of light and shade and geometrical precision.
“Black and white are the original colours that we see. The rest of the colours are manufactured in our eyes. It is more difficult to click black and white photographs because they are made of just light, shade and tones,” Bikash Das, one of the team leaders, told IANS.
The exhibition which opened June 26 will close July 15.
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Women at work
A two-day photography exhibition June 26-27 at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussourie captured the moods of working women across the country.
Titled “Hands of Hope”, the exhibition was an initiative of SEWA Bharat, a non-profit organisation that helps women become self-employed.
The pictures documented the different income-generating activities of the SEWA members and collective forms of struggle against corruption, diminishing natural resources and economic opportunities.
The photographs were shot by Sanjay Kumar, the national coordinator of SEWA Bharat, the All-India Federation of the Self-Employed Women’s Associations.
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Real value of art
The Indian art market has a relatively short history. During that, the present moment is most important in determining the long-term financial value of an artist, says Anders Petterson of ArtTactic, an art market research group.
“After the recent burst of the speculative bubble that started to build in 2003-2004, the Indian art market has undergone a significant value correction,” writes Petterson in the latest issue of the India Art Connect, an arts dossier.
So where does value of art come from? On a simple level, art provides satisfaction, or utility as economists would say, and that gives it value.
Satisfaction can be divided into three main categories – aesthetic, positional (linked to good art), and financial, Petterson says.
It wouldn’t come as a big surprise, said the art market analyst, that financial satisfaction in the Indian art market became a dominant factor in determining and driving value during the boom years.
According to him, curators, academics, art critics, art professors, artists, collectors, galleries and dealers are all critical elements of the art market ecosystem, and it is the consensus of opinion among these players that should form the basis for the long-term value of art.
