Drawing from personal experiences and sharing that wisdom with people is the best piece of advice a person can give to others. This is exactly what Karan Kapoor, the blue-eyed boy of the Kapoor clan of Bollywood – son of actor Shashi Kapoor, is giving to youngsters these days. “When you are young and don’t have many responsibilities then you shouldn’t think twice to pursue your dreams. There is a certain amount of risk, but it is worth taking because you never know how that time would change the course of your life,” says the actor-photographer Karan over the phone from London. The 55-year-old had done exactly this, around three decades ago, when in the early '80s and ‘90s he documented the lives of Anglo-Indians living and Mumbai and Kolkata, and the Portuguese impressions in the sun-kissed Goa by freezing several moments in his camera.
And, in between the ‘80s and ‘90s, he tried his hand at modelling and acting as well. While his modelling assignment, the Bombay Dyeing one shot him to instant fame, his short tryst with the silver screen with films like Sultanat and Loha is almost forgettable. However, this became a decade of learning and unlearning which lead him to identify and pursue what he loved the most – photography. He started freelancing for several Indian magazines and newspapers before heading to London to establish himself in the highly competitive advertising photography segment. His presence in the public memory was short-lived, but he decided to make a comeback last year with a travelling exhibition titled, “Time and Tide”, presented by Tasveer, that features selected photographs of the time well-spent in documenting Goa and among the Anglo-Indians. The exhibition is presently displayed in the city and the monochromatic frames reveal the discerning eye Karan had developed during his early years.
“I never wanted to be an actor as I wasn’t passionate about it. I was very shy, but when I came back to India from the US after my mother’s death in 1984, I started getting several offers. I wanted to spend some time with my dad and I thought of giving it a shot,” he recollects.
But photography was something he was interested in, especially after his parents gifted him a second-hand camera when he was only 15. So, it became a vehicle to express and freeze priceless memories of growing up years. It was his own Anglo-Indian heritage, his father was married to British actor, Jennifer Kendal that triggered his curiosity to document the last remnants of this shrinking community in the 1980s. The opportunity came to him when his mother played a pivotal role in Aparna Sen’s 36 Chowringhee Lane, in which he too made a special appearance, and got a chance to visit Kolkata and be close to his subjects. “I already knew many of them because of my mother’s side. But the project required to share a level of intimacy and familiarity with my subjects. I also had to have a lot of patience to click at the right time and freeze right expressions,” says Karan.
There is a level of intimacy in these living portraits of a bygone era. The use of light, balanced composition and comfort level of the subjects in front of the lens heighten the level of interaction with these frames. There was no delete button then, neither were there apps to enhance the quality of the picture. Transporting the viewer to the past are the silver gelatin prints, which Karan remembers “were so expensive” that he admits he “clicked each frame carefully and wisely”.
Childhood memories
His love for Goa was a different thing altogether. It had a lot to do with his childhood memories. As a child, he would often go to this coastal city with his parents for holidays. There they owned a house in Santo Vado in the north Goa. Initially, he started documenting what was around him in Goa.
The people, the city, and its vibrant Portuguese architecture and heritage. But then he became a witness to the changing landscape of Goa that is when he decided to venture out to south Goa to document what was already diminishing – culture and communities. Here, he had to start afresh.
“Here I wasn’t famous. People didn’t know me. So, I had to strike a chord and build relationships. In fact, I even clicked random portraits of people,” he says.
One such portrait is of ‘Brothers at the local feast in Loutolim, Goa’ in which the subjects confidently looking into the camera, with one of the brothers holding a bottle of wine or champagne.
“I don’t know who they are. Most of the people I captured are known to me. They are my neighbours or people with whom I built a relationship with. There was something about these boys that I loved,” he says.
It takes time to do projects like these, he points out. What is worse, he says, is the fact that you don’t get any remuneration for a project like this.
“It is something you do for yourself. I would definitely like to take up something like this again since my kids are settled. I don’t know exactly what I would be doing, but India is a land of possibilities and there is so much to explore. Time will tell,” he concludes.
(On till September 29 at Bikaner House, Pandara Road)