Krishnendu Chatterjee's ongoing exhibition at Delhi ‘O’ Delhi foyer describes this city, its people and their various moods. He tells Divya Kaushik that each picture is like a documentary and conveys an important message
The street hawkers, madaris and trumpet players have made the foyer of Delhi ‘O’ Delhi come alive in a different way. Some just gawk at you, some invite you to be a part of their happiness and some inspire you. The framed images capture different emotions and moods and reflect strongly the spirit of Delhi. Titled Delhi-Its Own Way by Krishnendu Chatterjee, the exhibition displays around 11 pictures taken in the time span of over 22 years. “They are few of my favourites and all were clicked in Delhi. These are not just pictures, they are shot in a documentary style and each picture conveys a message,” informs the lensman, who earlier painted and later moved on to do photography seriously. “I observe my subject first and then decide to click or paint it. I have been studying the culture of Delhi and one thing that comes out strongly is that there might be physical changes that are happening to our city but nothing can beat the spirit of Delhiwallahs. All through my life I have been in Delhi, but for someone who is coming from some other city, settling in Delhi can be very difficult. The traffic is massive, space is becoming expensive and water and electricity is a big issue in many areas. But despite that Delhi continues to have a spirit that encourages one to move on,” says Chatterjee, who when looks back at his journey of 22 years, feels that photography is only his first love, painting was a diversification. “As a 14-year-old I had to convince my father to gift me a camera, on the argument that my life’s first ever trip to Kashmir cannot be made without a camera. It was a Click III model. Those amateurish photos, snapped for the first time in life, were the first realisation towards my destiny,” he shares.
His choice of frame for his photographs gives his works a different dimension, and this has been possible only because of his advertising agency background. One of his favourite area of photography is art photography. Also, his special favourite is the section of food photography. According to him, while he works as a food photographer, the food becomes his model. That is the reason he never consumes the food shown in his photographs. To him, photography is like painting pictures with digital colours on the camera’s sensor. It is no less an art form to him.
He tells about his favourite picture from the exhibition. It’s a picture depicting a visarjan scene after the Durga Puja. “I am a Bengali myself and follow the pujo, but I am strictly against the water getting polluted due to immersion of the idols. last Durga Puja on the last day I was at the Yamuna and it was so crowded that for few hours my son went missing for few hours. I felt really bad and thought that nothing can change Delhi and we must change our attitude on certain things,” he says and adds about his other favourite work. “It was of two kids who brought kawad. It’s a Hindu tradition followed in the month of sawan by a few. People walk down to Haridwar to get water from the Ganges and offer to the Shiva linga near their homes. Over the years the tradition has picked up and even kids and women now go with the kawad. I was so curious to know more about it and what kind of satisfaction does one gets out of this that I followed a group on my bike till Modinagar. I got in touch with two children and captured them when they reached Ramesh Nagar in Delhi. The expressions of contentment and happiness on their faces explain everything,” says Chatterjee.
Apart from documentary style pictures, he loves capturing Mughal architecture. The exhibition at IHC continues till August 31.