Through Destroying, a photo-documentary series, Krishnendu Chatterjee captures poignant stories of ecological imbalances. Team Viva reports
The Yamuna has been dying, silently and slowly certainly for years and now it is dead. Photographer and story teller Krishnendu Chatterjee says that it’s painful that Yamuna is one of the most polluted rivers in the country, which ironically is also among its most revered water bodies. “By destroying the river, we are destroying our lifeline. It’s a reality which we often fail to notice,” he says.
His photo-documentary, Destroying, is rooted in the artist’s response to the terrible predicament of river Yamuna. The exhibition is the result of his work for the past ten years. “There is no change. The officials, the bureaucrats, the politicians and the public don’t come up with a solution. Various agencies plan and prod one another over it’s cleaning. In the photographs of the river which I have taken in 2006 and 2016 the water of pollution is the same. Every toilet in Delhi flows straight into the Yamuna, turning into a public cesspool. A pristine, flowing river remains a dream,” he laments.
“The enduring truth about its continuity and nourishment of the capital city, bearing witness to changing times and countless generations, did not help the river escape the filth that it accumulates every day. The ten photographs in the exhibition tell the story,” he says.
The artist spent more than a decade with canvas, before he came to Delhi. For him, photography is like painting pictures with digital colours on the camera’s sensor. He spends hours working on choosing his frames, to elevate his works offering various openings for the viewer to enter his narrative.
The photographs in the exhibition show how festivities, ceremonies and processions of all kinds, have turned the river as a dump yard. “Polluting the river is a continuing process and its is mistreated in the name of religion and politics. And when this is coupled with the development narrative that fuels industrial activity and unrestrained consumption, no questions can be asked. It’s high time to look for solutions” he adds. The artist exposes the duplicity where cultural practices and the philosophy of modern life
exert tremendous pressure on the ecosystem.
The show progressing at India Habitat Centre concludes tomorrow.