Recent 25 Comments
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Commented on 09 May 2020 03:56:50
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Image by : Ganesh H Shankar
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Totally at loss to find words for this ! How you've merged art into science and so seamlessly. Can't stop wondering how the 3D flight wave pattern precedes the birds? Lot of food for thought here! Thanks for sharing
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Commented on 04 May 2020 07:26:52
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Image by : Ganesh H Shankar
Comment by : nirlep
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Revisiting my earlier reading of Ganesh’s “abstraction versus reality” I feel several things were overlooked, mainly because of deep seated anthropocentric point of view. I could only laugh at my naïve sense of comprehension of things in themselves”. While I tried to comprehend the larger plot about “things in them selves”–my reading had no mention of “things “ in the picture. Rather I looked at the animate (see the bias here too!) alone–man/woman/birds/trees and ascribed to them the role of things too, making them play a dual role ; the role of things as well as of beings possessing selves. What about the things; the actual things in the picture? Like the canvas spreads, the cockpit cover, bamboo poles? Implicitly, things in themselves in Kantian sense would have things to have selves, or at least a character, some uncanny, enigmatic trait for the very reason that we don’t know about them, or there’s no way we can tell them apart from our limited knowledge about them. The things in the picture; do they throw some light on their character as things in themselves? Out of the infinite form things could attain; it is only through the form presented to us that some contact with them made and understanding, attempted. Like in the picture the blue canvas in the middle of the community of canvasses, looks sometimes like a kkk hoodie, teepee or a hut. The forms in what they appear to be to a viewer must have some historical-mythical-social connect within his/her consciousness. It is also known that these things may not be in the form they’ve have been captured in the picture. Possible forms could be a shelter for animals, some covering for the household, a makeshift bathroom or simply to pack and carry stuff besides myriad other uses from time to time. Their current forms may be thought of being closest to their natural forms if left un-deployed. It is a different question that they have gone through a process in being there; the process of their manufacture. But leaving that aside we have to take them as things as given to us just like a stone or a mountain, which also go under a process in being what they are, or, in appearing to be what they are. In being un-deployed their use value can only be conjectured or deduced. So apart from being the objects of conjecture they are just random forms at the moment. And precisely it is in this trait of theirs that they become enigmatic. What surprised me on second reading was what they actually accomplish in being just things. They relativise things in the scene. Even though the movement in the scene is nothing spectacular which has been ensured by the photographer through deft use of space and objects therein, yet by the presence of frayed canvas sheets a binary is created in the picture. Another photographic purpose they serve is provide the foreground, which could be simply ornamental, filler of space, part of the text or subtext or simply space through which the viewer telescopes into the frame. At the current moment however, they reflect the mood of the back-ground, also in its un-deployed, pensive state, caught as ciphers just like the canvas or the bamboos. Another pointer at their thingness having a self is their ability to obstruct vision. They hide space and challenge viewer’s perception. By being their opaque selves a mystery is created in an otherwise placid scene. Opaqueness here no longer remains a physical attribute but becomes a quality. I’m tempted to summarize my lurking perception that the foreground with its curious, uncanny canvasses has characterized the scene as much as what goes on in the background.
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Commented on 02 Mar 2020 09:15:39
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Image by : Madhav Jois
Comment by : nirlep
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Even more interesting would be if someone comes up with a monochrome version! Really looking forward
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Commented on 28 Feb 2020 11:43:30
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Image by : Tapan Sheth
Comment by : nirlep
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Hi Tapan, Isn't it beautiful that the same devices capable of razor sharp renditions are effectively used here to return the Zebras back to the eden. Eden where life is lived as life, symbols have not become signs yet, and the soul still roams free. Thanks for sharing
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Commented on 25 Feb 2020 12:08:26
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Image by : Ganesh H Shankar
Comment by : nirlep
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Abstraction for me is that part of the real for which meaning is yet to arrive. It is also used to put things in broad categories. A bird, animal, flower, human kind, God …. are all abstractions till we start knowing about them, their particularities, peculiarities or uniformities, significances so that we can tell them apart from ourselves and the world. For example the entire family of birds with all their diversity are abstracted as "bird" for the layperson. And how about a day in our lives? A day which we define as the time between two consecutive sunrises. Imagine a person in one such day. Though we might know his basic attributes but for what duration of time do we actually interact with the real him/her. These would probably be the moments when reality is present before us. But what of the time when the person turns his back and disappears for us. Does S'he cease to exist? While it might be an abstraction for us with the person retiring to His/her quarters but factual presence appears elsewhere for some else of which we have no idea. James Joyce captures one such day the 16th of June in the life of the protagonist Leopold bloom in his Novel Ulysses; an immensely unreadable text
spanning 730 pages!!! One day and 730 pages and I'm sure the author must've been constrained by time otherwise he would find more activities in the day still left to be de-constructed. However out of these activities very few eventuate into significances that ping us.
In the interregnum of events, activities happen out of definite volition or chance but they become noticeable only in their extra-ordinariness in the sense that they concern us in some way. Rest is all business as usual. So, we ask how was your day? “Exceptional, if we did something exciting or met an old friend or pick up a fight and just okay if it involved just going through the motions. Likewise, in photo making too. We pick up significances and ignore the things in-between, or going further, we try to pick up significances within the in-between things. Coming to the picture here, about something which often does not attract our attention and in that it is part of an abstracted day. Here, we see a man and a woman, probably a couple, carrying out their daily chores. The man lifts what looks like a protective lid of a cock-put to let out the hens for the day. The woman to the right appears engrossed in examining some piece of cloth. Some pieces of tarpaulin coverings await deployment for designated purposes. Birds roosting on top of the tree just keep sitting there- soaking up the sun unspectacularly. There is no sign of an alarm in the birds due to approaching man. They seem to cohabit the space and used to each other’s presence. Everything is in a state of passing. We are able to see it all because somebody has photographed it. For a moment, if we look away, it would make up for a slice from an abstracted day. Things are themselves as they appear. Has the photographer by his arrival altered the very sovereign domain of things in themselves? Looking inside once again into the picture we see man and woman looking in different directions, each engrossed in their own selves. In that sense their individual presences have not yet coalescd for each other yet. From the ease with which they handle their chores we can make out that they are not new to the work at hand. Pelicans on top of the Imli? Tree are set against an equally unspectacular sky. The foliage of trees runs into each other uncharacteristically. In fact the whole scene is one of assimilated presence. The photographer has tried to downplay human presence by aiming higher, including only their torsos. But even with that some gender markers are noticeable; ie. Type of work being performed by man involves lifting unwieldly stuff requiring force and gait, while the woman, fully clad (contrasted to the man wearing a vest) looks intently at something requiring tending. But are these markers not self-evident through our fore-knowledge and thus not of photographer’s making? For me the only question which remains is “Has the photographer tried to interpret the scene while attempting a “things in themselves”? Not really.
The only nit could be that he has tried to compose the scene Rule of thirds at the sky and the trees, white of pelicans offset by the white vest and the entire scene appearing to be balanced by the posture of man carrying his stuff. With this exception
We do see here "things in themselves".
Thanks for sharing Ganesh!------------------------------------------------
Commented on 03 Jan 2020 11:46:15
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Image by : Nevil Zaveri
Comment by : nirlep
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Lovely theme! Nirlep
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Commented on 01 Jan 2020 09:48:08
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Image by : Ghanshyam Savani
Comment by : nirlep
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Visuals follow you Ghanshyam!! You are like khul ja sim sim and lo! nature unfolds... beautiful!
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Commented on 01 Jan 2020 09:46:58
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Image by : karthik_ak
Comment by : nirlep
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Beautifully made Kartik! How did you get that convex, tunnel effect?
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Commented on 01 Jan 2020 09:45:37
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Image by : Snehal Patel
Comment by : nirlep
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Beautiful shot Sneha! Co-existence of nature and humans captured well. Curved path of Footprints aligning with branch of the tree makes it more interesting. Thanks for sharing
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Commented on 26 Dec 2019 09:39:21
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Image by : Ganesh H Shankar
Comment by : nirlep
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Another question "what is contrast?". In this image the contrast is simply optical? Then why does it play with my emotion? In doing so the leaf is not revealed in totality. I'm in a lurch. Help me out...
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Commented on 26 Dec 2019 09:32:58
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Image by : Ganesh H Shankar
Comment by : nirlep
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Ganesh a few hours spent by You, Ravi and Raj in the jungle are indeed a free ride for many of us into the aspects of nature hitherto un-noticed. Thanks for the ride! Having said this there's notable difference between the images considered art and this image so aptly summed up by you "Our art, being an opinion, thanks to only the limited five senses that we are born with, won't even last a few years of our life time. Something which appeared like a "work of art" does not appear so anymore." I think it's the shift in perspective which matters the most. In normal art-images objects are often used as syllables or sentences to evoke a hidden subtext. It depends upon the dexterity of the photographer whether or not S'he is able to fix viewer's attention as intended through grammatical & syntactical use of objects. So the larger picture pictures an idea. But here in doing what you are doing we get to see the objects as "things in themselves" ? The idea you've been exploring now for quite some time. Both types require different training for viewer as well. Whereas in the former requires cursive vision, parts of stills assembling and running a time lapse in our mind to convey subtext, the latter requires focussed attention to decipher the subtle art of nature's construction. As Raj said It's like meditation. The slow process of revelation. But here too our mind takes a tumble and reads prejudices in the image, such as I likening the leaf to a sentient, conscious being "contrasted" to the subdued background. I'm reading heirarchy in the image. Imagine!! How the simple act of seeing deconstructs our being. I'd be interested in knowing what went in your mind while processing, and prior to that, framing. Did you grapple with some order in your mind? Still reeling
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Commented on 17 Dec 2019 09:09:14
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Image by : Ganesh H Shankar
Comment by : nirlep
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From poetry of composition to finding poetry of construction you know it all! One realises what is flight made of. How many cords sing and dance and work for one flap of wing. To me the image is the imprint of flight, beyond that, the bone marrow of flight. In between you see gaps reclaimed by time. The central rib holding it all together, the bulwark. Dew drops sure look beautiful here but an encumbrance to the feather. Flap your wings birdy and fly, leaving behind the dew. In wondering lies the answer?....
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Commented on 17 Dec 2019 08:56:12
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Image by : Ghanshyam Savani
Comment by : nirlep
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You can't hide Ghanshyam. The form will find ya !!
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Commented on 17 Dec 2019 08:47:29
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Image by : Ganesh H Shankar
Comment by : nirlep
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Simplicity at it's best Ganesh. There's a perceptible shift in your focus which is deeply philosophical. It churns something in me at once and words begin to form and fade. In the end it leaves me with food for thought to which I keep promising to return. For example your image of Nandi the bull. Pardon me for commenting here
Objective truth is rediscovered by each epoch through subjective churning of ideas. Like Sagar manthan. Whether there is The Truth for all times is still a matter of debate but definitely the possibility is comforting. We can all rest our anxieties as if in a universal cloak room and sail through our lives in peace. It does not however preclude the need to work and apply ourselves to what we feel true. We may intermittently redeem part or whole baggage from the cloak room when required to assist further enquiry. One may depart from the sojourn satisfied or uneasy. Both posit to the wisdom of posterity towards paradigm shift required to grapple with emerging shadows of reality if there is one.
Whether reasoning plays the villain in undoing the established order or it cancels itself out, or simply tires out in the extended play, or lifts the cup? All outcomes are valid and play vital role in the distillation process. Because the process is rather long, one can only realise but never attain. Who realises realisation as attainment is the chosen one. But manthan remains the true hero. The chosen one is a product of the process.
Coming to nature of which the forest or jungle appears as the original embodiment we need to deliberate if nature is dynamic or static. Is nature as jungle something real or a discourse? I believe, to the inhabitants habitat is always a reality in which life has to be made through effort day after day. It transforms into discourse after we step out of it. Jungle as jungle could be imagined as created out of its own volition, through interaction of various life forms and forces. Once ejected out we try creating it through discourse. Like reading a book of design to create maybe? Through information posited with collective humankind being converted into wisdom honed from generation to generation. While metamorphosis of nature continues through this process, nature as nature still remains an entity to be understood and how it reacts to the changes made to it. Does it make us more aware through our understanding and compassion for nature or through its own inclement avatar and reprisals? Or rewards? While the issue gets settled in time, for now nature can reclaim Nandi the bull, and the temple and return them both to the original temple; the soil and the humous. Whether the return is redemption or loss ? The question keeps churning and coming back. Thanks for the cue. Master!------------------------------------------------
Commented on 17 Dec 2019 08:29:11
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Image by : Adithya Biloor
Comment by : nirlep
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amazing actually! How is the horizontal part of the web formed, what is it anchored to?
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Commented on 06 Dec 2019 11:02:52
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Image by : Mohammad Iqbal
Comment by : nirlep
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Totally agree with Ganesh and RD about out of focus-focus. Still if part of the twig projecting above the rock was avoided? For maximum effect try viewing from approx 4-5 ft on large monitor. Beautiful!
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Commented on 01 Nov 2019 06:51:29
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Image by : Dhyatisoha Savani
Comment by : nirlep
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It appears Savanis have the key to crack the visual codes of nature! Very well made image.
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Commented on 31 Oct 2019 12:48:05
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Image by : Ganesh H Shankar
Comment by : nirlep
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Simple, subtle and telling tale of light and life.
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Commented on 31 Oct 2019 05:36:43
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Image by : sitaramraul
Comment by : nirlep
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Not to miss the path of the sound as mentioned by Nevil...
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Commented on 31 Oct 2019 05:35:52
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Image by : sitaramraul
Comment by : nirlep
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I too can hear the "Sounds of Silence"
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Commented on 30 Oct 2019 09:49:16
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Image by : falakvasa
Comment by : nirlep
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How did you make this? very curious to know
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Commented on 30 Oct 2019 09:47:33
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Image by : Vikas T R
Comment by : nirlep
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Would love going for a walk here!
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Commented on 29 Oct 2019 10:37:45
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Image by : Ganesh H Shankar
Comment by :
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Hi Ganesh, Interesting question there once again. I'm ok with colored version for it is the closest formal representation of something living, growing, with it's own sense of order, not available to the brush or lense. Yes it is quite likely that Jackson Pollock would've drawn inspiration from things natural as the picture you posted. As abstractions his paintings might seem disorderly but up close none of them seems to violate canons of composition. The canvasses are balanced, one type of randomness evening out against another type in another part of the frame. In a way he recreates the living order of nature through impeccable composition of the random. Closer home Art of clutter for example in my opinion seems to work on the same lines. It is so engaging Ganesh, the buzz doesn't stop but my desk is shouting there's more work. Thanks for keeping us all creatively engaged!
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Commented on 23 Sep 2019 07:35:54
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Image by : Gaurav Vashisht
Comment by : nirlep
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Yes! it always surprises the seeker Gaurav. And as the old adage goes beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, it's upto us what we want to see. This particular blur is metaphoric of union of the earth and the sky and everything in between. The viewer too has moved gently away. Love everything here! Thank you for the music...as the song goes
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Commented on 20 Sep 2019 05:02:56
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Image by : Ghanshyam Savani
Comment by : nirlep
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You sure have cracked the code to communion...