Trace of Time

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Ganesh H Shankar
Trace of Time
Time is one of the essence of life. We perceive time through our eyes and ears. It is implicit in rhythmic musical of notes of a cuckoo, it is implicit in rhythmic pause in calls of a barbet, it is implicit in variation in sound of a flock of great hornbills flying above our head. Time also enters our mind through eyes. We 'see' time in wild chase of tiger hunting a deer in jungle. We 'see' time when deers cautiously approach a waterholes in a jungle to quench it's thirst. We see time in rhythmic flight of a flock of birds in the evening. It is evident we need sequence of closely spaced (events as) images (time lapse or video) to portray time. So, how do we show time in a single image? One often used way is to show time using slow shutter speed to create a 'movement blur' using which our mind can beautifully deconstruct frames of it. Are there other ways of portraying time ( and hence our experiences of life related to time) ? I think it is possible. I think another way to portray time is to show multiple events in the a single image. How can we do that ? Probably one of the portrayed event is physical and the other events could be abstract. For example in the above image I tried to portray two events - first, a leaf on the shore (physical) and the second event (abstract) which is trace left by receding water which denotes the past. The trace of the leaf on the sand formed due to movement of water gets portrayed abstractly (past). Effectively two events are combined into one to show the trace of time. During my recent trip I had these thoughts and tried to portray time in some of the images I made. Attaching below a few more along these lines. I would love to hear your thoughts.
Wed Apr 25, 2012 3:24 pm
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Ganesh H. Shankar
Wishing you best light,

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Fine Art Nature Photography


Ganesh H Shankar  Joined CNP On 24 Apr 2008    Total Image posts 973    -   Total Image Comments 7874    -   Image Post to Comment Ratio 1:8    -   Image Comment Density 38     -     Total Forum Posts 956

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Commentby Ganesh H Shankar on Wed Apr 25, 2012 3:26 pm

Trace of Time

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--
Ganesh H. Shankar
Wishing you best light,

Image
Fine Art Nature Photography



» Last edited by Ganesh H Shankar on Wed Apr 25, 2012 3:31 pm; edited 1 time in total

Commentby Nilanjan Das on Wed Apr 25, 2012 6:36 pm

Time and space definitely invokes a great sense of emotion, more among artists. I think this is one subject which has been used by contemporary artists to create an emotional connect through various kinds of visuals, like here it is the ocean leaving its marks and telling it's story, remember the image of the African Child and the Vulture behind it ? The child is about to die, the Vulture waiting for the final moment....not only that image showed the present, it showed the past ( effect ) and then the future of children, women and those civilians in events of wars. Paolo Pelligrin is a master of this, he has used so much creativity and combination of abstraction and mix of reality to generate impact in the minds of people. Apart from Pelligrin there are definitely many more who have impressed me with their work, but not mentioning much as they have not tried to do anything in nature. This same form of contemporary art form has traveled quite a distance. From What was to What is, these kind of creations now show what is and what could be. We will discuss Ganesh when we meet up :-). However, I personally think that slow shutter speed photography can be used to express other moods more efficiently than actually conveying what you have created here. Even if there has been use of slower shutter speed in frames which tell stories of time and space, the impact of the story lies somewhere else than looking for it in the motion blurs :-). My very personal thoughts Ganshi...

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Nilanjan Das Photography

Commentby Ganesh H Shankar on Wed Apr 25, 2012 7:50 pm

However, I personally think that slow shutter speed photography can be used to express other moods more efficiently than actually conveying what you have created here. Even if there has been use of slower shutter speed in frames which tell stories of time and space,

Nilanjan, I think mood/idea and its expression are two different things which an artist has to master. Just one of them isn't good enough. Sure, blurs can used to convey different other moods too however I was focussing on ways to express time beyond the well known 'motion blur'.

of the story lies somewhere else than looking for it in the motion blurs .

Sure, a technique (motion blur or anything else) does not make the image. We don't want to find a meaning as an after thought after using 'movement blur'. *But* expression of mood requires a technique ! An artist need to know what colors generate what moods to express them, just having a mood isn't good enough. As a photographer I need to know how do I translate my emotion into pixels. Control over the medium is as essential as original thoughts about the end creation.

Sure we will discuss these in detail when we meet at Corbet..

--
Ganesh H. Shankar
Wishing you best light,

Image
Fine Art Nature Photography



» Last edited by Ganesh H Shankar on Wed Apr 25, 2012 7:55 pm; edited 2 times in total

Commentby Nilanjan Das on Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:44 pm

Exactly Ganesh :-), for the same reason a person who has immense knowledge of grammar does not necessarily become a good writer, reading words of wisdom can not make a person wise :-). I completely agree that creating moods and narrating a story or expressing thought growing in the mind are very very apart. After a period the biggest differences arise from most subtle changes, probably so overlying that it becomes difficult to identify and isolate them even. That is when the visual elements probably become less important. I forgot to tell during our telephonic discussion that I once saw a short film of life through an inanimate object. It was a chair on a porch you know... it was a planned shoot, but the chair showed the subtle differences so nicely you know, from a baby to his grandparents. The grand father would sit with a baby and play with him on the chair, the chair would be used by the blind grand mother to relax and think of the past, the chair was probably one of the things which was not changing in the house for the grand parents, she would sit there for long hours and probably think of the past, the baby's parents would use it less and rather use the sofa more ( moving ahead with times ) but when one day the baby's grand mother had died, he would come and sit there trying to connect to her, it was simply wonderful Ganshi, amazing. The Chair how it used to be once and then how it was now specially after the sofa moved in, the grand mother dying etc all symbolically showcased every contact points of life. Emotions of every kind getting expressed just so beautifully. I do not remember the name of the docu, but I can not forget it either. Expressions are everything for an artist, something so difficult to do in nature but surely possible. Simple and subtle images as yours here speak more.

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Nilanjan Das Photography

Commentby AratiRao on Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:52 am

Ganesh, what you have done here is thought provoking. i was telling radha - i might need many more hours to digest and then comment... what i instantly feel though, is that i want to see these in a room - on walls, so i can wander between them and allow myself to be with each one, alone.

on my monitor, scrolling for something this thought-provoking, is sub-optimal for me :)

So going to save these and savor them one at a time, with your words and then synthesize my feelings!
A

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~ Arati Rao ~
http://www.aratirao.com

Commentby kiran_sham on Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:37 pm

Love the way you have portrayed exactly what you were trying to say the other day :) Abhishek and I had then discussed about it without any conclusion... but the image here I guess speaks for itself. I love this image, more so, for the kind of thoughts that are generated in your mind... As Arati said, thought provoking indeed!

Commentby ramesh_adkoli on Fri Apr 27, 2012 10:22 am

I just love the classical feeling of this image, Ganesh. I am enjoying that by dropping in here many times. Let me hold that joy for some more time before I dwell into the concepts behind it. Thanks a lot for sharing this image.

Commentby Hrishikesh N on Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:34 pm

What's it with water and time.... or should i say Sea instead of water? :?:
I too get that urge of connecting the two, while standing on a beach (deep rooted feeling about past and present) ....some how the future part of the time does'nt figure at that exact moment to me.... The above images give me the same feeling. Very Beautiful images and concept Ganesh Sahab....

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Hrishikesh
http://www.facebook.com/hrishikeshNSwamy?ref=hl



» Last edited by Hrishikesh N on Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:37 pm; edited 1 time in total

Commentby bharath on Fri Apr 27, 2012 3:20 pm

I loved the last image Ganesh.. Get a feeling that each of the shells traveled through that path (which is how I see) and merged to stay together for ever. Cropping few pixels on the right would have given a feeling that both the paths are infinite. Just my imagination.

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www.bharathphotos.com

Commentby Nevil Zaveri on Sat Apr 28, 2012 4:34 pm

lovely series of images .. so gently 'n subtly taking us thru passage of time, each on it's own way. arati said it right 'want to see these in a room - on walls, so i can wander between them and allow myself to be with each one, alone'.

tfs ganesh. regards.

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Image
http://www.nevilzaveri.com/

Commentby nirlep on Sun Apr 29, 2012 11:37 am

Hi Ganesh,
I love the way you come back from your excursions posting such thought provoking images. Looking at this image and juxtaposing it with your body of work I'm tempted to call you "lense buddha". Return to the simple as profound eludes most of us. This image goes to indicate how much mental churning goes on inside of you when you are apparently making "images". Are these just images? Your words provide the answer and hand out keys to the ineffable. A different way of seeing which leads us all to a new aesthetic beyond the "pretty". Appreciation of small nothingnesses connects us to their role in building the visible that we call as significant. It's like connecting a labourer with a highrise. A point of return if I may say.
Thanks for this.

Commentby dinesh.ramarao on Mon Apr 30, 2012 9:33 am

Ganesh,

Can a photograph show time ? rather elapsed time ? You have shown some residual physical evidence of elapsed time here, as traces of sand. It remained / remains as question for me how do we show time in a photograph. There have been thousands of photographs with such depition with traces of time, an example being Hugh McCabe http://tracesofthereal.com/ (thanks to Nirlep for directing me to this site in one of my older images)

but my question remain - ' how do we show elapsed time ? '

And this is why i love being here on CNP, everyday we have new thinking - beyond the obvious 'pretty' images .

-RD

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- RD

Commentby Vikas T R on Tue May 01, 2012 1:17 pm

hmmmm....what should i say.....while seeing these images, i remembered your one of the comments "a dead tree which grows in the mind".....similarly these images have occupied the thoughts and as Arati said, i too would like to have big prints of these images in a room and walk around these to feel the trace of time.....

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"The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity."
-Vikas
PhotoGallery of Vikas

Commentby sriram janak on Thu May 03, 2012 7:42 am

i like the last image ....ganesh..its zen like...

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Living with a damaged skull
http://sriramjanak.wordpress.com

Commentby Sravan Kumar on Fri May 11, 2012 11:00 am

Great Creations. Nothing much to talk about other than sitting back and enjoying. Thanks for sharing.


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