A trip to blessing and bliss

HYDERABAD: Art enthusiasts, researchers and aficionados are bored with the overdose of too many exhibitions and shows being held on digital platforms.

Many long for a physical visit to an art gallery and savour the opuses. And when it comes to photographs put on display on the walls of an art gallery the experience creates a different effect on visitors.

That’s how in this unlock phase 4 Samanyashastram Art Gallery, Manikondahas organised a photography exhibition titled ‘Kashi’.

As the name is self-explanatory the photographs clicked are of the holy city Kashi better known as Varanasi or Benaras.

This city in Uttar Pradesh which draws thousands of devotees every year along with filmmakers, writers, photographers among other art practitioners. The city is also home to Kashi Vishwanath Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. 

The 70 photographs being showcased at the gallery are by Hyderabad-based photographer Ramesh Babu K.

He says, “A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life.”

At the same time, he feels that the pandemic has forced people to obsessively think and talk about death so his shots try to balance the equation of life and death. He went to Varanasi in the month of February and captured shots not just of temples but of life in the streets and on the banks of river Ganga as well.

He shares, “When you go to a place like Kashi, it’s all about life after death and the mystery surrounded with death, not the horror. You see life pouring all around and that’s when you hold it as snippets.”

The photographs feature not just men and women but flora and fauna as well. One of the photographs features a tiny yellow-beaked mynah sitting near the clay plates which are offered to the dead. Another features dogs on the ghats.

The exhibition is on till October 31 from 2 pm to 8 pm

— Saima Afreen
 saima@newindianexpress.com
 @Sfreen