Shobha Deepak Singh recently launched her coffee table book titled Musicscapes (The Multiple Emotions of Indian Music). She tells Anushka Bansal that she prefers an analog camera over a digital one
They say a picture speaks a 1,000 words and are the only pieces of memory left of a person when they are no more. They are personal, intimate and hold different values for different people. For Shobha Deepak Singh, director of Delhi’s Shriram Bhartiya Kala Kendra, it is a medium to keep alive a moment in time of the lives of artistes who hold a revered position in the world of music.
Unknown to the knowledge of a many, Singh has been capturing artistes for years and recently launched a selection of photographs in her coffee table book titled Musicscapes (The Multiple Emotions of Indian Music). There are two things about the book that is bound to strike a reader. One, all the pictures are in monochrome spectre, and two, none of the photos are captioned. “It is a rare collection of about 250 photographs. I chose to capture musicians because music is close to my heart,” said Singh and explained why she chose not to caption the photographs, “I believe that a photograph should speak for itself.”
The book was launched at the India Habitat Centre where about 20 photos from the book are currently on display at the Visual Arts Gallery. Singh has been photographing for quarter of a century and believes in using a film camera in lieu of a digital one.