25 August 2018
11:30 to 12: 30
My Sight and Insight: ‘A Poeticospiritual and Musicospiritual Rendition in Fine Art Nature Photography’
By Ghanshyam Savani
(Dear Friends, at the outset of my Talk, I thank Mr Nevil Zaveri, my Photography Guru, for deliverance of the Talk on behalf of me as I was not able to attend the CNP Meet due to some unavoidable circumstances. I had requested him to do this job for me and he accepted readily the same for which I am really indebted to him very heartily. He delivered this Speech in my absentia and made it more effective and more sublime otherwise the same I would have not been able to bring that out. I had to shorten my Speech for some reasons at that time, but now I post herein the same I had reckoned for at that time.)
Beloved CNP Team And All CNPian Friends.
Namaskar…!
Good Morning…..!
When I received a call from Mr Adithya Billor with an idea for some speech on ‘Osho and Nature Photography’ for CNP Meet, it got me frightened as the type of my being is such that I hardly prefer to come before such an elite audience for the speech and that too before such heighted and celebrated photo-artists of ‘CNP Family’. It is because of such topic of elusive nature and of profound penetration that it got me hesitant in the first place, but Mr Adithya Biloor got me encouraged and gave me get-up-and-go energy and finally I decided to prepare a Talk with this title: ‘My Sight and Insight: A Poeticospiritual and Musicospiritual Rendition in Fine Art Nature Photography’. I thank Mr Adithya Biloor deeply for this motivation. I will go into detail and the nuance of my perception and insights about this title of my speech.
CNP: My Pledge And My Stage…
Friends, before I share something of my within, of my inner, I would love to thank CNP for different streams of inspiration and motivation I have attained from it. My journey started on CNP and has been going on it continuously very musically and joyfully. I love to be on CNP because I learn a lot of new depths and heights on CNP; I get insight from it, I get inspiration from it. I feel ‘I grow here and I bloom here’. I have gone through all the wonderful and educative conversations and posts on CNP. This has helped me a lot to ‘see’ elaborately the world of Nature Photography. Once I got a surprise call from Mr Dinesh Ramarao (RD) a year and a half ago, I had a wonderful exchange of my ‘feelings’ with him and it was really a weighty and delighting sense of joy to receive his call from his side first. He wished me to continue to work on my own vision without getting influenced by anyone else. This motivated me much to be of my own. I thank Mr Dinesh Ramarao for his consideration and courteous way of motivating me that way on phone.
I have a lot of comments on my images from Mr Ganesh H Shankar who himself is an Institution of Photography. His comments on my images have always shown me the right path of my journey into ‘light’. Once on my image he commented, “Ghanshyam, you are on the right path, don't care if people question your compositions! You are brave, listen to your heart and march forward! We are here to nurture the creativity, not hinder it. If you don't see a comment/view it is just that we may not feel the same way as you do, but march forward, don't change a bit! Wish you the best..” These are really genuine, inspiring and motivating words from the ‘True and an Ideal Artist’. These words made me confident and I am going on my own way without caring whether I am viewed or not; whether I am commented or not. When Mr Ganesh H Shankar and Mr Nirlep Singh used to post my images on their Facebook walls, I would feel as if I was the winner of some prestigious awards and, of course, this was not a bit less than that in actual sense of the terms. I thank both Mr Nirlep Singh and Mr Ganesh H Shankar from the deepest core of my heart to motivate me like that…! Thus, I thank ‘CNP Team’ and all the members on CNP for creating such wonderful family and creating such noble and aesthetic platform for ‘Art and Creative Nature Photography’ where we all ‘photo-artists’ share our ‘feelings’ through ‘the language of light’ together. Yes, I grow here….
Art Comes From Heart…
Dear friends, it is really very difficult to penetrate art to snatch stuff in terms of the definition and the language. But one way or another, I try to put forth my insights to share among this eminent audience. The title of my Talk is a careful and responsible choice of my inner voice. There are certain moments in my perception where routine words come to nothing. In such emptiness, I need to make up some words to help myself express my ‘insight’. I do feel and I do believe that such an attempt pushes me ahead to see something new and fresh. I try to go beyond the monotony of routine ‘seeing’. Thus, I have made up three compound words- ‘Poetico-spiritual’, ‘Musico-spiritual’ and ‘Logico-spiritual’ to make my narration at ease. These three coined words are my textual abstraction of expressing my inner being through poetry, music and photography.
To me Art is a way to connect with the Absolute, the Whole, the Almighty, the Existence, the God or the Nature. It is my Prayer; my Meditation- a sacred corner of my life where I can celebrate my aloneness in my own solitude, where I can take the deep breath of my own freedom, where I have my own individuality, my own flowering, my own fragrance. To me, Art is not logic nor it is a thought nor it is a debate- an argument nor is it a prose. To me, Art is love, it is a feeling, it is a poem, it is a song, it is a verse, and it is a dance- a celebration of our inner. That is why I use this compound word- ‘Poeticospiritual’ for this path to know the mystery of the Unknowable Nature.
...monsoon melody- heart makes whole world green... by Ghanshyam Savani, on FlickrBy this word ‘Poeticospiritual’, I mean my spiritual journey to imprint my ‘expressions’; my feelings; my love; my peace; my prayer and my meditation through a poetic approach in composition and in the theme of the photo series of my work. I try to imprint my ‘insight’ of this spiritual journey through such visualized poetic moments captured into camera. Each of my images I believe is my ‘visual haiku’ in praise of Nature, the ultimate ‘Existence’ as a token of my gratefulness. In other words By ‘Poeticospiritual Fine Art Nature Photography’, I mean my work of art, my way of creativity, my way of ‘seeing’ nature, my way of expression, my visualization and perception ought to be poetic, lyrical and musical. It ought to weave the threads of human feelings with an imaginary juxtaposed of similar elements with those of similar feelings to imagine in such visual compositions that my images should become the mirrors reflecting the spiritual glimpses of human journey on this beautiful Existence. It means I want to capture Nature in Her ‘isness’ and in Her ‘suchness’ without playing much with technical tricks and post processing.
https://www.creativenaturephotography.net/forum/phpBB3_0_1/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=784
Fine Art Is Refined And Defined By Inner Eyes…
By Fine Art Nature Photography I mean my images ought to be less craft and more art, less technical and more intuitive, less subjective and more objective, less concrete and more abstract, less logical and more poetic, less mindful and more heartful, less thoughtful and more peaceful, less vocal and more instrumental, less philosophical and more spiritual, less concentrative and more meditative. And finally, the artist is less to be saved and more to be lost in the process of creation. To me, consideration of totality is more imperative than the perfection in art because it is a growing phenomenon like life.
...autumn-grace... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr Life consists of small things and I try to capture very mundane, very common and small things and elements of nature that we do not generally think of having any aesthetic value, significance or importance in our life. My type of being is such that it takes me to such places of negligence in the eyes of the people so far as photography point of view is concerned. Nobody generally ever goes where I go for photography.
...winter whisper: moon-melody... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr‘I see simple and I click simple’. My way is to capture forms and patterns; lights and shadows in such abstraction that it may have some notion of space and silence. ‘Space’ is my canvas, ‘Light’ is my brush, ‘Nature’ is my colors and ‘Silence’ is my story. I try to draw visual Haikus inspired from Nature. A Haiku, the smallest form of Japanese poetry, means ‘the beginning’…... The poet begins it, but never ends it- the rest is left on the listener to complete it. In the same way I ‘begin’ my image and let the viewer complete it.
...music of mountain... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr Like Haiku, I leave gaps, spaces, silences and hints of colors which have some notion of psychosomatic and metaphysical expression of my own experiences. If the viewers find them relatable to their own hidden and dormant psychic imprints of their own experiences, it creates a reciprocal transmission of emotions. This ‘transfer’ is creative and harmonious completing the circle of creative process between the artist and the viewer. Then both of them feel the gaps, spaces, silences and hints of colors and fulfill them with their own meanings. Thus, I try to compose this harmony using very ordinary and common elements from surrounding nature around my work place. I have a very small area of my university campus where I move round the year in all seasons with my single camera with a single lens. I know everything about the geography of my campus. I am not a week-ender; I am a daily commuter in photography. Every day is a great challenge for me- the same trees, shrubs, creepers, flowers, leaves and the same place in my ‘sight’ every day. Sometimes I get frustrated, I feel myself bored and exhausted with routine and monotony of everything around me, but I keep going visiting the same places again and again. I try to relate everything- ‘visible and Invisible’; ‘knowable and unknowable’; ‘concrete and abstract’ and ‘physical and astral. Out of these metaphysical experiences, there erupts miracles…and I find something fresh; something new; something poetic and something spiritual and that is why I call this experience ‘Poeticospiritual’. It is not a mere term to apply here unconsciously. I use it in my total awareness, in my consciousness. This experience is my inner experience which I call ‘Poeticospiritual' experience’ quite beyond from ‘Logicospiritual’ wherein logic is the main point of interest to understand the illogical.
...winter whisper: way of leaves and lives... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...song of nature: pulse of my heart... by Ghanshyam Savani, on FlickrSpace Is Grace Of My Creation…
I try to draw ‘space’ in my images. In a way, I can affirm that ‘space’ is my intrinsic subject of my vision. I love simplicity rather than complexity in ‘space’. Each of my images I feel is a page of Nature’s Diary wherein I try to compose my inner poetry of serenity and tranquility and I try to compose my music of my solitude. I try to portray my inner sanctum, my way of understanding nature, my inner ‘eye’. There are some moments when I become empty and something starts transpiring into me. I become a green leaf, a dry leaf, I become wet fragrance of the first rain, I become a tiny drop of rain, morning dew- it is sheer glory. I become ‘no-mind’, I start melting and become one with a celestial song of nature. I am always in search of new and fresh perspective to look at nature to write with light in my Diary of Nature- an anthology of my nature songs.
I create ‘Compositional Space’ in my images and certainly it is my core intent to create it because ‘Space’ is like soil where everything grows. I believe in minimalism of elements and maximalism of ‘Space’. Space is the essence of life. Everything comes out of space. Without space there is no purpose of life. If we don’t have freedom in life, life hasn’t any meaning. ‘Space’ is ‘Freedom’ and I portray ‘freedom’ in my images. When I penetrate and ponder over ‘Composition’ and ‘Space’, I find their roots in my psychosomatic upbringing and nurturing. I had very little space in my life. Here by ‘Space’, I mean the shortage, scarcity and insufficiency in terms of everything in everyday affairs of my living. We had very limited resources in our life. We had fruits only during when we were sick, ill and that too were very limited, only sapota and papayas would be made available and if illness was more serious or would get prolonged then apples and coconut would be made available. We had a very small house accommodating six family members. I used to manage very smartly where to sleep, where to do homework, where to keep collected pebbles, stones, empty matches boxes, and other rubbish collected from around the village. I do believe the ‘Sense of Spacing’ got imprinted into the deeper core of my consciousness by this experience of my life. It was a micro and macro management of ‘Space’ in my life. It taught me the importance of ‘Space’ in my life and I go on working spiritually on ‘Space’ in my meditation and to express the same into my photography. In the beginning it used to come into my photography unconsciously, but now it comes very consciously. I know it before I click. This is how I am now ‘Space’ conscious in my photography to give it a meaning of simplicity, freedom and imagination.
...just two of us... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...drop of bliss... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr 
...summer symphony communion... by Ghanshyam Savani, on FlickrMy Motion In Emotions…
As I go on growing and learning, it comes to my realization that the images I create have their roots in the core of my childhood days of insufficiency in all sorts of living affairs. Those were not affluent days, those were affluent days but in all sorts of insufficiency, poverty, suffering, pain, agony, sadness. Those were the days of tremendous experiences of all nine ‘Rasas’- 1) Love 2) Joy 3) Wonder 4) Courage 5) Peace 6) Sadness 7) Anger 8) Fear and 9) Disgust- required to be affluent and to be grown rich in any form of art. This is the greatest treasure I believe I have from my childhood. The bare, insecure and wild childhood of tremendous energy provided me an opportunity to be very close to and to be in direct touch with Nature or the Existence or Five Elements of life- 1) Earth 2) Fire 3) Water 4) Wind and 5) Space. I have had this opportunity of direct communion with these nine Rasas and Five Elements that keep me awakened in my expression of those experiences, memoirs, reminiscences and other hidden layers of emotions through my photography. Below are the images conceptualizing 'five' elements':
...summer symphony fire in my heart... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...roots: inner journey... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...monsoon melody: whispering wind... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr Out of these nine ‘Rasas’, my type of being which is much more inclined to the ‘right hemisphere of the mind’- it is the hemisphere of the mind which is supposed to be of poetry, love and a great feeling for beauty. As you know that we have two minds. The left hemisphere of the mind is uncreative, logical, calculative, technical and reasoning while the right hemisphere is quite opposite to it. I knew this truth from the book ‘Creativity’ by Osho and focused my whole energy in creating poetic images of love, beauty, cheerfulness, meditation. In short, all these nine ‘Rasas’ I try to translate in my images with the help of Five Elements: 1) Earth 2) Fire 3) Water 4) Wind and 5) Space.
...winter whisper: flyer the bird and flow-er the river... by Ghanshyam Savani, on FlickrSeasons Are Soil and Soul Of My Subject…
The season is my anthology of songs. I love my images to be enjoyed, celebrated and meditated as ‘Songs of Nature’. My images are my lyrical songs of my feelings and emotions. My images are my inner pages narrating my journey into sight and insight. I love each season in its utmost beauty and melody. The season uplifts my feelings and emotions to some other realm of ecstasy and mystery. I lived my childhood under the blessings of all seasons. I have played my childhood in the lap of the season. The seasons sprinkle colors into my ‘eyes’, they spray fragrance to my ‘heart’ and they nourish my ‘soul’. The seasons are different forms of existential poetry. Each season has its own poetry and music. It reveals aestheticism and mysticism in its profundity. Each season is my source of inspiration, my encyclopedia of philosophy and spirituality. The season is the religion of the earth and we are all the sons and daughters of this beautiful earth. Our responsibility to take care of our mother earth is immense. Each season for me is the real university of life unfolding ever new wisdom of the existence. We have a rich tradition of classical music and its ragas have been associated with seasons since time immemorial. The six seasons- Vasant (spring), Grishma (summer), Varsha (monsoon), Sharad (autumn), Hemant (Pre-winter), and Shishir (winter) are Holy Scriptures of the holy earth. The seasons are my Musicology. I have been listening to some wonderful and melodious Indian classical instrumental music albums by Indian classical maestros Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt Shivkumar Sharma, Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Pt Ronu Majumdar, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Bhaskar Chandavarkar, Vanraj Bhatia and other maestros who have composed thematic music inspired from nature. These albums have become my part of life and I have been listening to them again and again for years. They are:
Soudscape Series: (Five Albums):
(Performed by luminaries of Classical Music, the album provides peace, relaxation, and the subtle feeling of oneness with nature. The track represents the sounds of nature and perfectly captures the ambiance of the five aspects of nature, which is, Deserts, Valleys, Mountains, Seas and Rivers through instrumental music. It serves as the perfect gift for anyone who has a penchant for classical music and is in love with nature.)
1) Music of the Rivers
2) Music of the Mountains
3) Music of the Seas
4) Music of the Deserts
5) Music of the Valleys
The Elements Series: (Five Albums):
(Rich melodies on the vast and expansive Earth, from its creation to its mystifying connection with the sky, a mix of traditional and contemporary sounds bringing out a rich imagery of fire in its various hues, melodies on the calm and peaceful waters, their various faces and moods and a mix of soft and pulsating rhythms in his interpretation of the magical mystery of space and presentation of soft and soothing melodies on the wind - the breath of life.)
1) The Element: Earth
2) The Element: Water
3) The Element: Fire
4) The Element: Wind
5) The Element: Space
Songs of Nature: (Five Albums):
1) Song of Nature: Flame of the Forest- A Musical Rendition of Nature
2) Song of Nature: Babbling Brooks- A Musical Rendition of Nature
3) Song of Nature: Rhythm of the Rain- A Musical Rendition of Nature
4) Song of Nature: Backening Hills- A Musical Rendition of Nature
5) Song of Nature: Dancing Daffodils- A Musical Rendition of Nature
I got inspired to make my image series on the seasons by listening above music. The following are my Poeticospiritual and Musicospiritual photo series on nature:
1) Monsoon Melody
...monsoon melody: dancing under drops... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr 
...it dances, like a peacock, my heart dances... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...monsoon-dream... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...monsoon melody: romancing rain... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...monsoon-drawing... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr2) Winter Whisper
...purple-rise... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...morning-song... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...growing within... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...song of earth and sky... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...winter whisper: love never sees age... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr3) Summer Symphony
...summer symphony divine drink... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...way to summer-point... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...beauty-wings... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...strings across wings... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...summer-book... by Ghanshyam Savani, on FlickrChildhood Imposition On My Composition…
I always relate my compositions with memories of my childhood days I used to spend with my friend Babu. We both had only two or three pairs of clothes. We had two-three shorts to wear in our childhood days. ‘Pants’ came quite later when we were in 8th standard. My friend and I used to do patch work to our shabby shorts when shorts used to get old and worn out and it was our frequent job-work because playing the whole day in the whole village was our fulltime job and schooling was a part-time extra affair. No homework; no tuition. When we both were at patching job to our torn shorts, we used to plan to repair by placing our shorts properly on the ground to measure the damage, to calculate and find the appropriate thickness of cloth to patch to shorts. We used to apply our aesthetic sense whether the color of patching cloth would match the original one or not, whether the pattern, lines and composition would be comfortable to viewers or not. We used to tilt our shorts to all possible perspectives and angles and thereafter we would finalize the compositions of our old shorts to put on again. I do believe this experience got deeply imprinted into my being and the same I do when I am in the field. It really brings tears in my ‘eyes’ when I share this ‘treasure’ of my childhood. Sometimes tears prepare eyes to ‘see’ the world with a different ‘eye’……! And I ‘see’ beauty in ‘mundaneness’ around me, because my world was very ordinary and mundane. Our ‘extraordinary eyes’ escape to see ordinary and I think the ‘ordinary eyes’ see the extra ordinary beauty because Nature is very ordinary like our breathing. Breathing becomes extra ordinary only when we are on ventilator. Ordinariness is the very source of enjoying nature. I never have much fascination to go to some extra ordinary places for photography. If it is to happen, it is alright, I will enjoy that, too. But my real world is around me where I am. And I am quite happy with it because it is more enough than I deserve. Now it is ever new to me, ever fresh to me. I find sheer benediction where I am.
My Realization Is My Visualization…
My photography has a great connection and relation with my rural upbringing. Those were the formative years for the growth of my ‘seeing’ and ‘visualization’. I owe my ‘seeing’ and ‘visualization’ to my rural childhood. I would take our buffaloes for grazing in suburbs around my village and our farm. I would go to drop our cow and buffalo in the morning under herdsmen’s care; they would take the herd for grazing in suburb across the river of my village and I would go to receive them afternoon. It was the routine affair of whosoever had the animals to send them for the herd. Sometimes our buffalo would get astray from the herd. We had to go for ‘her’ search around the village. Sometimes we would easily find her; sometimes it would take 2-3 days to find her out. These 2-3 days would turn very miserable days for the entire family. I would try to read pain in the eyes of my family members. We all could not sleep worrying their being lost. I would see tears in my mother’s eyes. She would take vows not to eat sweet, to the family Goddess to offer Her- her faith. The cow and the buffalo were not mere animals for us; they were as dear as our family members. They were the supporting pillars of our family. They would nourish us with their milk; they would provide us the manure. They were the earning members of our family. Thus, I could learn to read pains and sufferings from human being (my family members) to animals (the second line of my family members).
But people are very paradoxical, when a boy is born in our society, it is celebrated in great merriments, but with daughters it is taken apathetically. On the contrary when a male calf is born to a cow, it is sold to some cattleman, but with female calf, it is a blessing to the family. The day a male calf used to be sold outside to some cattleman was the day of our great pain, sorrow and tears just feeling that some nearest family member had been lost and the same pain I could even felt in its eyes, I could read it, feel it. There was a kind of empathy and fellow feelings from both the sides. I would feel a great void in its absence; life would become barren, it would become sheer meaningless. For days I would remain in a calf-sickness and take myself to come to a normal way of my life after a long period of time. This was the great phase of humanizing me and the same was the period of emotional transference, too, from human to animals and from animals to plants. When I would take my buffalo for grazing with my friend Babu, nature was an absolute field of our experiments. The elements of nature were more than toys for us; they were our real wealth and our real health. We would see different shapes, human figures, animals, designs, patterns, and colors in leaves, plants, flowers and trees. Nature around us was like an encyclopedia of our ‘seeing’, ‘reading’ and ‘listening’. We would read our sorrows in dry leaves, we would read our smiles in flowers, we would listen to music in whispering winds, we would read poetry in nature, and we would find our solitude in nature. This way I learnt to relate my emotions and feelings with small and mundane elements of nature. I feel my sense of relating the emotions to the elements of nature has grown from such emotional episodes occurred in my childhood and I do find their deep rooted connections and relations with them, too.
‘That Glimpse’ Colors My Point Of Interest…
Being myself the eldest offspring of my parents, I had to take care of my two younger sisters and a brother while my parents were at work in the farm 3 km away from my home. I was then in seventh and eighth standard. My parents used to leave all of us at home alone under my care from morning to late evening. I had to nourish my brother and sisters at home. I had to accomplish washing home utensils, sweeping home, feeding and watering our cow and cleaning her dung-mess. Sometimes I used to keep dough and chopped vegetables prepared before my parents would return tired at home from the farm. My parents had to carry out all sorts of farm laboring works. Sometimes they would not employ other labors with a calculation of saving money. I had seen my parents always perspiring in poor and torn out clothes.
...edges of memories...- by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...monsoon melody: symphony of separation... by Ghanshyam Savani, on FlickrThat age of mine was such tender that it was bound to be vulnerable to some fears of insecurity in parents’ absence at home the whole day. The fear of insecurity and fear of loneliness entered into me so deeply that it got me horrified. I had met with a very terrible and very ill phase of my life. I would go after my mother running and crying holding a bamboo stick in my hand after sometime she would reach the farm from the home. I would go and take a little peep of my mother far from her hiding myself behind the bush. I would go barefooted two to three times a day to take a glimpse of her if she is safe there at farm. Some of my countrymen used to think I had gone mad. Sometimes I was being scolded and bitten by my father for this kind of my deed, but I was helpless and my father, too. Sometimes I could see tears in his eyes, too. My mother was in a very miserable state of mind by reason of this changed state of my mind. My neighbors would think my legs had fallen into the circle of some weird energy. My mother would take me to some Sadhus and fakirs to get me rid of the clutches of these ghostly and eerie powers.
In the evening I would go to outskirt of my village to see if my mother was returning home. I was so sharp in recognizing from very far the hint of color of my mother’s sari that when she would pass through the narrow path between thorny and bushy hedges I would recognize her coming back home. This sense of perceiving color got so profoundly rooted in my subconscious mind that even today I feel the same thrilling when I find a little bit of a hint of some color while photographing in the field. I see my mother coming back…..!
...winter whisper: branch of knowledge... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...grown and glown... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...monsoon melody: just like my beloved... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr Life Is Constituted Of Small Things…
Small and mundane things constituted joy, cheerfulness, blissfulness and ecstasy in my life. Exotic things were quite far from my eye sight. I lived with ordinary things and ordinary people. I had to play with ordinary things. We did not have fancy colorful and animated toys. We had to make inanimate small things animate to suit to our own vision and perception. We were freelance child visionaries to form the things the way we wished. In my childhood we used to buy either from a lorry or collecting the damaged and thrown out films bunches of cut-films of a movie fastened in a bunch of 25-30 films with rubber bands and used to project on our home room walls. We would make a projector box out of hard covers of used notebooks. We had a magnifying lens, a broken piece of mirror to get sunlight reflected through the projecting box onto the wall to achieve the film image projection. We would manage to control light, shadow, darkness, contrast and sharpness of the film projected on our home-theatre walls. I was the chief operator and Babu was my project co-operator. We would make a film show in 5 paisa and 10 paisa for other street children and the money collection meant only to buy some more cut-films. We never had profit, but we had only sharing. Sharing was our joy and satisfaction. We had an open air theatre in my village. The owner of the theatre used to arrange a special show for school children in 25 paisa or 50 paisa. I do believe the threads of my post-processing of my images lie back in this episode of my life.
...just two of us... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...summer symphony those burning days of mine... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr When I read my image in a technical point of view, the entire memoir of these memories gets resonated in my heart and I feel the seeds of my interest in photography are deeply rooted in my childhood. I get lost somewhere in my past. It relates me to life keeping me pulsating with the play of elements in nature. I become a child how so many a times I go for photography in the field around my university campus round the year. I again and again visit the same place in all seasons round the year. I again become an innocent being in the field with tiny, small and mundane elements of nature. It becomes my meditation. These ordinary and mundane elements are extraordinary for me because they help me express my inner being, they become my visual language, and they become my inner light, my inner color. They become my medium of expression. These small and uninterested elements make me the whole and harmonious. I feel connected to the very core of life when I am connected with these elements of no interest for the rest of the world. I find golden Sutras of life in these elements. I write my personal diary with these single liners like Sutras. Sometimes I find my camera helpful when I don’t find any words and sometimes I find a pen helpful when I don’t find any pictures. Thus, the pen and the camera become my two ‘eyes’ to ‘see’ the world of my own. Thus, I try to create poems out of my images and I try to create pictures out of my poems. I love to create poetry in Gujarati along with photography.
Reading And Music Are My Two Eyes…
I read Osho and J Krishnamurti and to read them is an opening to my creativity totally in a new and fresh space of my consciousness. When I read them I get glimpses of ‘essence of spirituality’ between the gaps of words and these essential gaps I try to translate into my work of photography. My love for reading Osho and J Krishnamurti and my love for listening to thematic Indian classical music have endowed me with philosophical and spiritual insights that greatly help me create what you see on CNP. Through music embedment to my images, I try to narrate my ‘feelings’ of this wonderful journey of ‘My Sight and Insight into a Poeticospiritual Rendition in Fine Art Nature Photography’. Now I do believe that to describe abstract and fine art photography, music embedment helps a lot to feel image in its deepest core than textual description. I let the viewer grasp and perceive the total abstraction of my expression by embedding classical and thematic instrumental music and studding captions to my images. The true beauty of enjoying the image lies in ‘seeing’ it, ‘reading’ it and ‘listening’ to it. All gaps, spaces, silences and hints of colors, in this way, are fulfilled and colored. Photography is, thus, my visual literary work of fine art. Photography to me is my meditation, a language of light with which I try to write ‘visual literature’ for the inner thirst of my soul. It is then therapeutic, transforming and relaxing to the very core of my consciousness. I do believe that a work of art should come out of our total awareness, out of our peace, out of our meditativeness.
A book by Osho titled ‘Creativity: Unleashing the Forces Within’ is my Geeta, Quran, Bible or any such holy book as an artist. It has nourished and nurtured me aesthetically, philosophically and spiritually. It has rooted me in nature very deeply and it has given me wings to soar in the sky of creativity. It has given me fresh and ever new insights to portray nature in new perspectives of visual poetry breaking all traditional and stagnant mindsets in defining art and creativity. Any artist creating in any form of arts must go through this book to understand the very purpose of art. Reading really widens the horizon of vision and perception. Reading sharpens the aesthetic and creative sense. I have learnt titling and captioning of my images from the titles of the books, chapters, and the titles of the music tracks of some popular instrumental music albums in the beginning, but now it has become my own way to create my own titles appropriate to my own vision and perception. ‘Reading and music’ both are my ‘reading meditation’ and ‘music meditation’.
Any form of art has its multiple and compound phases of growth. When art is ‘growing’ it is very subtly translated into next higher stage. For example, CNP in its formative stage was more inclined towards natural history. But CNP grew with the insights and visions of its creative and innovative team under the aegis of a gifted and visionary nature photographer Mr Ganesh H Shankar who gave nature photography altogether a new dimension and new perspective of ‘Fine Art’- ‘Nature as Art’, thus, it grew to a higher phase of perceiving nature in a more refined way to relate it with ‘human emotions’. It grew from ‘physical entity’ to ‘mental entity’; from ‘gross’ to ‘emotions’- the pattern changed, the perception changed and thought process changed- it took a creative turn in the field of nature photography and now we all are what we all are on CNP today. And now again the time has grown to take a next quantum leap from ‘mental entity’ to ‘philosophical entity’- thus envisaged again by the master Mr Ganesh H Shankar who during his visit to Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari (Gujarat) as Inaugurator and Chief Guest of the grand event of Passing out Exhibition and Certificate Conferment Ceremony of One Year Certificate Course in Nature and Wildlife Photography, declared his intent and content of the next phase of the growth of ‘Nature as Art’ to ‘Philosophical Nature Photography’. Now CNP is going to witness its third and the higher phase of its growth. ‘Sat-Chit-Ananda’ is a Sanskrit term that describes the nature of reality as it is conceptualized in Hindu and Yogic philosophy. Sat means ‘truth’, absolute being or existence- that which is enduring and unchanging that we call in nature photography- ‘natural history’. Chit means ‘mind’, consciousness, understanding and comprehension that we call in nature photography- ‘nature as art’ and Ananda means ‘bliss’, a state of pure happiness, and joy that we are now again going to make a pilgrimage into this unknowable realm of the Existence. ‘Sat-Chit-Ananda’ is the real journey of CNP. When Sat (nature history) is translated into emotions, it becomes art or poetry- it becomes Chit and when Chit (mind) is translated into joy, it becomes (no-mind), it becomes ‘bliss’- Ananda. In Ananda, in ‘bliss’, we are in the state of ‘music’- we become ‘music’.
...monsoon melody: creeper concert... (3) by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr I love to embed music to my images the way nature has embedded breathing to us. We need a very musical heart, a very delicate heart to comprehend the inner resonance and silence. Music is my very breathing. Music is my bokeh, music is my background and music is my backdrop. Each of my images is a visual creation (composition) to explain the mystery of nature. My images are my musical compositions (creations). I prefer to embed music to my images rather to explain them in texts. Music is quite near to grasp the aesthetics and mysteries of nature. That is why I love to sprinkle a flavor of music to my images to make them the visual poetry. My village, situated on the banks of the river, was a very festive and celebratory village of all festivals round the year and all ceremonies, occasions, celebrations, festivals, marriages, deaths, births are incomplete if music is withdrawn from them. I have a myriad of memories of my childhood associated with folk songs, Garba, Bhajan, Kirtan, Duha, Arti, Prabhatiya, Fatana (marriage songs), Marasiya (elegies), Qawali, Ajan and Hindi and Gujarati filmy songs. This association is very melodic and very nostalgic. This makes my images- ‘Musicospiritual’. Even today when I happen to listen to any of these compositions, it comes with some associations of some emotional episodes of my life. It brings whole treasure of various shades of emotions and feelings. It helps me decipher joy, cheerfulness, blissfulness, sorrow, unhappiness, agony, sadness, misery, pain, suffering, silence and other shades of emotions and feelings associated with different episodes occurred in my life. Music is subtle translation and expression of these emotions and feelings. It adds colors and fragrance to them. It brings life to them.
...monsoon-melody... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...winter whisper: melody of broken string... by Ghanshyam Savani, on FlickrI make my image total with visual treatment of nature’s elements playing with ‘space’; embed thematic or classical instrumental music of renowned artists that has some deep relevance to the mood, nuance or nature of the theme of the subject series of my images and I try to complete my image by giving it an appropriate title. Thus the culmination of my image is visual, musical and textual. I spare a lot of time to make a careful choice to embed a track of instrumental music and give it a suitable title. The embedment of background music is the most important attribute of my images I post on CNP and I owe this credit to Mr Ganesh H Shankar who made my life simpler and simpler by making this embedment of music simpler and simpler for me by bringing out certain technical software changes gradually. I thank heartily Mr Ganesh H Shankar to make my life easier the way I wished on CNP to embed background music.
https://www.creativenaturephotography.net/forum/phpBB3_0_1/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=630
...monsoon melody: song on string... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr I am naught in music classically, technically, vocally and instrumentally, but background music is very poignant and important part of my day and night routine of my life.
I am sure someday the embedment of music to fine art photography will make it more refined and more defined in terms of higher consciousness.
...monsoon melody: lyrics of lullaby... by Ghanshyam Savani, on FlickrMy Breathing Space: Beauty Of My Beloved…
Love makes life colorful, cheerful and blissful. Love makes life magical and musical. Our whole heart pulsates in its deepest core when we are in love. We need not think to compose anything; in love everything is composed. We need not have an outer camera, we become the camera. It has its own simplicity and complexity. It has its own blur and sharpness. It has its own dodging and burning. Love has its own ‘darkroom’ and ‘light-room’. The whole poetics of my photography is the ‘eyes’ and ‘beauty’ of my Beloved- I see her everywhere in nature. I have my own poems for her, I have my own songs for her and I have my own music for her. She sings in my ‘eyes’ and she dances in my ‘heart’. I portray my ‘feelings and fragrance’ of romanticism and aestheticism of my life in my photography.
...monsoon melody: dancing under drops... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...summer symphony naina lagai ke... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr 
...winter whisper: blessed beloved... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...winter whisper: beauty of my beloved... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr 
...beauty of my beloved... by Ghanshyam Savani, on FlickrSpirituality Is My Actuality…
My way is the way of spirituality. Nature Photography is my closest genre of my choice and love. It is my meditation and my religion. Through nature photography I wish to instill some spiritual notions in my photography. I want to create the simplest and the most ordinary images that generally we miss to ‘see’ around us. The most ordinary has the real joy of the most extraordinary. I create the images for me in the first place and thereafter out of my joy I share them with beloved ones.
When I started sharing my images, I was not understood and it was not at all worrying me. The more I felt myself least to be understood and the least to be viewed; it gave me more ‘space’ to go for even more ordinariness in my creation. Mr Adithya Biloor, in his comment on one of my images, writes, “It is very difficult to comment on your images.” Yes, he is quite right because the ordinary does not have any distance from us; it is our very nature to be ordinary. It is our very breathing. How can we comment on our breathing? To be healthy is to be ordinary. It is only when we are sick, when there is some distance, we start feeling gap in our breathing. This gap enables us to say something about it.
Osho says, “There are three ways of looking at existence: feeling it, seeing it and being it. The first is science, the second is art, the third is religion.” In a way, I am on my journey into feeling it, seeing it and being it. My ‘Living Khajuraho’ series is my most loved creation inspired from nature.
As with a lot of mystery in India, Osho’s revealed wisdom is important to feeling the wholeness of the mystery again. In the words of Osho:
“...if you meditate there, you will know what the Tantra masters were doing. They were creating in stone something that is felt in the ultimate orgasmic joy. It was the most difficult thing to do, to bring ecstasy into the stone. And if the stone can show the ecstasy, then everybody can move into that ecstasy easily. [i]Khajuraho sculpture is not just to see, it is for meditation.
Sit silently and meditate for hours. If one goes to Khajuraho, one should live at least for three months there, so he can meditate on each possible inner posture of orgasmic joy. And then, slowly slowly, the atonement, slowly slowly, the harmony; then suddenly you are transported into another world —the world of those mystics who created this temple. This is objective art…”[/i]
I see Khajuraho in nature though I have never visited Khajuraho.
...living khajuraho- beauty of beloved... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...living khajuraho: alluring enchantress... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr 
...living khajuraho: inner wounds... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr 
...living khajuraho: inner fragrance... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr
...living khajuraho: playful hearts... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr Not Competitiveness But Meditativeness…
Schooling was my part-time affair while wandering in the village, fields and river was a fulltime pilgrimage for me; it was something divine for me, something godly for me. It was something spiritual for me. It was my real schooling in the real sense of the term. No tuitions, no coaching classes, no extra classes, no competitions with anybody. Life was sheer sharing for Babu and me. Perhaps for this deep rooted imprint of noncompetitiveness in my being, I always find myself out of place in any kind of competition. I do believe ‘art’ in its true nature is noncompetitive. Any form of higher consciousness or any form of art is in no way a form of competition. If it is solely for competition, then it may be everything, but it is not a form of art. Art is a higher form of human consciousness if it comes out in spontaneity of ‘what is’, out of ‘no-mind’, out of meditativeness. It simply descends through us from nowhere; we become simply a medium; we are not there, we are absolutely absent there. George Gurdjieff, a mystic, philosopher, spiritual teacher and seer of the first half of the 20th century, used to call it ‘Objective Art’.
1) https://www.creativenaturephotography.net/forum/phpBB3_0_1/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=782
2) https://www.creativenaturephotography.net/forum/phpBB3_0_1/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=800
...winter whisper: zen pause... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr 
...symphony of meditation... by Ghanshyam Savani, on Flickr True Teachers: One Is Home; Another Is Destination…
CNP is the right kind of soil where we have an ample scope to grow. I started learning photography under Mr Nevil Zaveri. He is an able and insightful artist par excellence. Mr Nevil Zaveri step by step went on unveiling the mystery of the ‘aesthetic heart’ and the ‘compositional eye’. It has been a miraculous journey with him and it is he who acquainted me with CNP and all CNP Team. Photography to me is my journey into ‘light’ and ‘insight’. This journey takes a quantum leap in growth when we are fortunate to have a ‘right kind of teacher’, and the same has happened to me. By ‘right kind of teacher’, I mean the one who has that mission, passion and vision quite beyond from the ordinary set of minds and Mr Nevil Zaveri is this teacher. Mr Nevil Zaveri, possessing all intrinsic qualities of a true teacher in him, is my photography ‘master’ who teaches me how to read the image from its core and with all its technical and aesthetical perspectives in all its paraphernalia. Thus, he is my ‘home’ and I feel ‘homely’ in him. He used to show me Mr Ganesh H Shankar’s work along with the narrative of Mr Ganesh H Shankar’s vision and his journey as an artist during my first year of ‘learning’ under him. Mr Ganesh H Shankar used to appeal to the deepest core of my heart. This created a deep thirst in me and I started my journey towards- ‘fine art’ line of work as my first choice of genre in photography. Thus, Mr Ganesh H Shankar is my ‘destination’ and I feel myself ‘destined’ in him. My journey is the journey between Mr Nevil Zaveri and Mr Ganesh H Shankar. I feel rooted in Mr Nevil Zaveri’s soil of creativity and I feel growing and blooming in Mr Ganesh H Shankar’s sky of creativity. Both these ‘teachers’ saved my many years and set me aside from ‘Photo Equipments Buying Patterns for Nature Photography!’
http://www.naturelyrics.com/pages/articles/equipment_buying.html
Thank you all.
