Photographer Cyril lucido Kuhn had a conversation with Utsav Mishra telling about his astonishing views on photography
In 2014 while visiting a friend at a tea estate near Nilgiri, I was blown away when I happened to see the sky. I took a couple of pictures and when I saw what I had clicked, I was speechless. That time I realised, that photographing the sky is what I have to do,” said Cyril.
He told us when a Delhiite looks up at night in the hope of seeing a star studded sky, all that catches the eye is darkness. This factor played a big part when I took up photography.
Cyril is a true midnight child. He loves photographing starry skies in north India after spotting the visible difference between the skies of big cities and smaller towns.
His photographs shot over the last two years are displayed at his first solo exhibition- Into The Darkness. He is a freelance photographer having a special interest in capturing places and people, interiors and architecture and more recently, the night sky. He travelled since his young age to innumerable places around the world. He always had a soft spot for the hills, mountains and had in recent times begun to travel to various mountainous regions in India so as to capture the incredible night skies that one witnesses in places more secluded.
His work showed his experiences. The picture Dreamwork depicted the Parvati river that flew towards the hill town of Kasol in the midnight. “The picture was clicked in the midnight and I was thinking how the scene would look in a camera. I studied the formations and framed my camera where I could insert stars, clouds, rivers and mountains in the viewfinder.”
Debring Starry Sky showed the contrast between the emptiness of Debring and fullness of the starry sky. The photographer added, “I saw the sunset and the colour palette was ever changing as, stars were shining. I captured it in a single shot.”
He spoke about his other picture Milky Way and Shooting Star. it was taken during one of my favorite places, ladakh. The image shows in the Milky Way that was rising from behind the snowy mountain bathed in soft moon. It was very difficult to click this picture because of heavy wind. But I managed my frame in a single click.
Cyril has been patient enough to capture meteor showers. He continued by revealing that he then took to learning digital photography. From stars defining the milky way above the hills, or human houses to wheat fields illuminated by the full moon.
So what motivates him as a photographerIJ “I am motivated by myself. I did not know about photography and its technique. I felt that those who cannot see nature’s beauty clearly can see it by clicking the image with its emotions.”