A Bharatanatyam dancer and a wedding photographer have come together for a photo series themed around the emotional upheaval caused by the ongoing health crisis. NT BUZZ gets details
RAMANDEEP KAUR | NT BUZZ
Three months into the lockdown the general air of despair began to feel suffocating for Bharatanatyam dancer, teacher, and choreographer, Impana Kulkarni. As she searched for a medium to express her myriad thoughts and feelings on the pandemic, she came across the works of her colleague and friend, wedding photographer Amol Kamat, and decided to reach out to him for a photography collaboration. And with Kamat having always wanted to do something out of the box, Kulkarni’s proposal for the pandemic shoot came as an opportunity to fulfill his wish. Their photo series ‘Pandemic Reflections’ was completed in June.
“Our objective for this set of images was to create a narrative that would gently reflect the present, and show hope. I also wanted to promote artistic expressions and interpretations of the pandemic,” says Kulkarni, adding that if these images resonate with the people and trigger other artistic works then the aim is achieved.
The duo chose six images for this series. Four of them mirror an emotion felt during this pandemic – there is despair, doubt, a cry for help, and a search. The fifth is a portrayal of an inverted reality that we are in. The final one is for hope. “Hope can create the urge to live, the urge to fight it out, and the urge to dream. We need hope, we must hope. But where is hope? We can either search for it, or find it in ourselves – find the light or be the light,” says Kulkarni.
The series was shot close to Bainguinim, and Kulkarni who is featured in the series chose a red sari (nauvari) for the one-day shoot. Red is a colour, she says, that can depict celebration as well as danger. “As Bharatanatyam dancers, our costume is generally a sari, and our rich appearance often stands individually or sometimes in contrast with respect to the themes we portray – ranging from agony and anger to love and joy,” she says. But the idea, she continues, is to give another-worldly experience, and direct the viewer’s emotion to such an intensity that the attire, person, space, everything – becomes a blur. “I wanted to retain that identity and ideology. Blending our styles together – my classical dance base and Amol’s visuals – we created this photo series,” adds the dancer who has previously performed at prestigious festivals like the Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa Arts and Literature Festival, and in Chennai’s Annual Arts Festival and Namaste Pacifica (Fiji).
Originally, Kulkarni says, they had a more elaborate storyboard planned. “But there was a sudden spike of COVID cases in Goa as the monsoon approached, and we knew it would be risky to see the whole story through. So, we limited it to just one costume,” she says. Also, finding an appropriate location was the difficult part of this shoot, adds Kamat, who has also done the editing. But thankfully, he says, they had good climate conditions, well-suited for the shoot. And Kamat states that this shoot has taught him to look into a different perspective of photography. “There’s much you can do with photography. Moving forward, I would like to do more of such theme-based photography, addressing socio-economic issues.”
As for Kulkarni, she is now looking at developing these pictures into a performance, and also hopes to lend her voice to matters of environment and society.