Mumbai-based lensman Aaran Patel and his 'culture connect'

A year after opening its doors in Kala Ghoda, Mumbai, Method opened its second space in the city in Bandra. For its first exhibition, it zeroed in on photographer Aaran Patel and his Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb series.

The exhibit is one half of the show - Double Exposure - also featuring fellow photographer Linesh Desai's Oblivious. Known for its experimentation with various art forms such as music and interactive installations, it was natural that Method would have an equally eclectic artist like Patel as part of its opening show.

An educator and photographer, Patel believes that "the idea of India as a confluence of cultures, traditions and religions is being challenged".

Armed with his camera, he seeks to document this changing society. "I want to explore in the minutest detail the complicated questions around what is being valued, what is being carried forward, and what is new that is emerging through crises of personal and national identities," he says.

The small series of only six artworks focuses on everyday syncretism through shared architecture. In most of the images, one finds people across faiths and backgrounds enjoying themselves at historical monuments that mean different things to different people.

The images throw up elements of sharing and exchange between cultures, something that even trespasses religion and geography. The artist borrows the title from an idea that is distinctive to India - a meeting point of two rivers. In Patel’s view, "photography offers a chance to preserve and conserve" and this ongoing project does just that.

"This series is to focus on the syncretism that is so distinctive and unique to the subcontinent," says the lensman, who believes that MF Hussain also paid a fairly large amount of attention to syncretic India, celebrating the country's varied richness. The series draws from the rich legacy of different cultures and faiths that share so much, not in spite of, but because of their varied backgrounds.

Patel, who is currently pursuing his Master in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, US, also spent four years with Teach for India as a fellow and member of the organisation’s innovation cell. He used the time to photograph classrooms and communities around the country, besides extensively shooting handloom initiatives in Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh, for the last decade.

On his ongoing project, he says, "In spite of our digitally saturated lives, there are many theatres of history that are untapped and unexplored. I intend to continue photographing everyday syncretism and architectural symbols representing composite culture and borrowing, and exchange across religions. And I also think it would be interesting to explore these ideas by engaging with educational institutions and through popular culture."

Contemporary manifestations of syncretism are also fluid and dynamic, believes this artist who throws at you the events of the last few months in India as an apt example. For him, it is important to continue documenting aspects of Indian spaces and communities that represent our shared history.

"As I said earlier, this is an act of both preservation and exploration, given that there is no finality or resoluteness to our understanding of ourselves, our heritage and culture," says the artist, who also treats himself as an observer of changing conceptions of space in cities in India.

In fact, last year he collaborated with visual artist Jeff Nelson on an exhibition - Mumbai is Upgrading - that threw up some of the rarest and unimagined images of Maximum City. At the same time, the 20 digital artworks sought to conserve elements of the past and develop a landscape of parallel existence.

Close to 40 per cent of proceeds from the sale of prints from the present exhibition will go to Karwan-e-Mohabbat, a people’s campaign devoted to the universal values of the Constitution. Led by Harsh Mander, a human rights and peace worker, the organisation supports survivors of hate crimes and injustice with legal, social and livelihood help.