Gypsy Memoirs - Artist, Photographer,Traveller...

Shooting ‘Munna - The Informer’

2008-10-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

Manish who is fondly known as ‘Munna – The Informer’ (‘A Wednesday’ fame) has been a gifted find as far as my conceptual fashion imagery is concerned. We had the opportunity to work together only once but I am greatly impressed by the sheer professionalism shown by him I am hopeful that he will be the face of much more photo shoots, which I am planning over the next few months. Already there are two projects that I am investing much energy to get done with this model turned actor.

The following are few selected shots from my last shoot with Manish. Feedbacks are most welcome…

The GYPSY voyage to the Promised Land…

2008-10-04T06:37:00.000-07:00

Life experiences trigger actions within one to find the real meaning of existence and purpose in life. It seems that the GYPSY is finally in one such voyage. I find myself seeing new landscapes with new eyes. I pass through red-hot deserts, lush green valleys. I pause at places and savor the richness of moments and continue on this great voyage. Being unattached to the events and people in my life I am taking sure steps towards the Promised Land. Once I reach there every dreams will be realized, my struggles will end. The struggles of life have become inevitable. They have helped me to concentrate on my voyage more than ever. Struggles – they are now an opportunity. I embrace them and transform them to my advantage.

Magic is bound to happen. The magic will be real in the Promised Land. As Henry Miller puts it, “The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware – joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.”

The magic of images

Images will be the trump card for all the magic spells. Creativity will break loose as never before. The world will be mesmerized; it will open its eyes and see dreamers realizing their wildest dreams. Even as I write this and even as you are reading this all the positive vibes in the world are conjuring up in favor of this GYPSY.

For whom

Why am I in this voyage and for whom I am doing all this? My cocoon years are far over and I am on this journey to realize the purpose behind my existence. I travel for myself but at the same time I do realize this all our lives are deeply connected. So essentially I am on this voyage for you as much as it is for me. More importantly I want to make my good Lord proud who without any spec of doubt called me a special person.

You are welcome to join me coz I am beautiful and wonderful beyond imagination. Harmony! Peace! Love! - That’s what I am. You will never want for more.

The journey that took 25 amazing years

2008-10-03T23:54:00.000-07:00

“You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.” – Henry Drummond

25 years of life I have sojourned here with civilization and have managed to survive and celebrate my birthday in all its grandeur. I realize that most of the people who were there during the glory years of my life where no longer to be seen anywhere in the scene. It was but a bunch of new invited friends who occupied my room. Being the host I was rallying in my room taking care of the needs of my friends even as my mind was weaving numerous intricate questions and their puzzling answers. I did ponder about the vanity and deception of life. I concluded that there is no use looking at the many odd things that went wrong in life. It would be much more fun to continue on the journey ahead and enjoy all the bliss that life has to offer me.

But apart from all this what made the day even more interesting was the fact that my day started off and ended with enriched feelings of love and hope. Both of them where missing in my life for a rather long period and personally it was good to see myself cherishing those emotions however short-living it might turn out to be. It also enabled me to chitchat with the good Lord wherein I saw myself flipping through the pages and reading portions from the Book of Life. At 2 am I yawned and then laughed off the events of the day (they were too good) and went to sleep. As my eyelids closed the realization was deep down in my heart – “Tomorrow things will be different, life would show me all its masks and I will grin back at all of them. I will remain the great hearted beast, the king of a kingdom unknown with no queen and no prince and no princess.”

I am thankful both to Love and Hope… I am looking forward for u both to tent with me forever and change the fortunes of my kingdom. My pilgrim progress continues…

Travelling in God’s Own Country

2008-06-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

The month of February saw me backpacking in Kerala. It was supposed to give me a break and a re-union with my friends. But if it was not for the few shots which I managed to capture during the trip I would have been utterly disappointed. Thanks t o those moments which redeemed my trip. I cannot wait for my next trip back to home as I will be travelling alone with mind and eyes fully open to the beautiful things happening in God’s own Country

Creation - The Dilemma God faced...

2008-06-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

During the past torturous months i became very skeptic about the very existence of God and my mind was weaving philosophies varying in depth and meaning... I asked many questions, many "if's", many "whys". I sat in my STUDIO, in the corner of my bed and used to stare @ The Bible, the holy rosary, remaining silent pondering for numerous hours . The drugs, the booz, the women, my friends all have failed me... I left my camera in its pouch as i was sure that it would serve no purpose as my mind, soul and spirit was so filled with the darkness. Insomnia hits were becoming regular during rest time and drowsiness during my activity hours.... Situation seemed to demand psychiatric aid but still for some reason, deep within I believed that i am still sane in an insane way. I stumbled upon certain philosophers and intellectuals during this tragic phase of my life with whose help I am hoping to return to a life of normalcy. The following rendition about creation by a poet and philosopher from the states had a dramatic impact on my struggle with faith and God. Read on...

Imagine God in Heaven surrounded by the choirs of adoring angels singing hosannahs unendingly… “If I create a perfect world, I know how it will turn out. In its absolute perfection, it will revolve like a perfect machine, never deviating from My absolute will.” Since God’s imagination is perfect, there is no need for Him to create such a universe: it is enough for Him to imagine it to see it in all its details. Such a universe would not be very interesting to man or God, so we can assume that the Divinity continued His meditations. “But what if I create a universe that is free, free even of me? What if I veil My divinity so that the creatures are free to pursue their individual lives without being overwhelmed by My overpowering Presence? Will the creatures love Me? Can I be loved by creatures whom I have not programmed to adore me forever? Can love arise out of freedom? My angels love me unceasingly, but they can see Me at all times. What if I create beings in my own image as a Creator, beings who are free? But if I introduce freedom into this universe, I take the risk of introducing Evil into it as well, for if they are free, then they are free to deviate from My will. Hmmm. But what if I continue to interact with this dynamic universe, what if I and the creatures become the creators together of a great cosmic play? What if out of every occasion of evil, I respond with an unimaginable good, a good that overwhelms evil by springing out the very attempts of evil to deny the Good? Will these new creatures of freedom then love Me, will they join with Me in creating Good out of Evil, novelty out of freedom? What if I join with them in the world of limitation and form, the world of suffering and evil? Ahh, in a truly free universe, even I do not know how it will turn out. Do even I dare to take that risk for love?”

Shoot for a Management School

2008-06-09T19:23:00.000-07:00

Boredom was really creeping into my nerves during my stay here in Mumbai and it was then my friends came up with the suggestion to shoot for the catalogue of a reputed Management school here in Mumbai. This one was a clear low budget shoot and I did this purely for practice reasons. The results of the shoot were pretty satisfying and the experience was a good one. Its fun shooting young people and I guess I will be stumbling upon more opportunities like this in future:

Me and Socializing

2008-06-04T08:49:00.000-07:00

Me as a character has always been an introvert and my bright & hilarious side has only been exposed to the ones with whom my trust level is the highest. My level of social activities are extremely limited coz I don’t keep a great circle of friendship and ‘my space’ is always considered to be sacred and considered taboo to be ever breached. Living in the world of social networking I consider myself as an alien of sorts. Orkut was once heavily popular with me and much of my time was once transfixed in that virtual world which eventually managed to kill all my interest levels in rediscovering lost friends and making dazzling new friends. Some attribute the reason of my departure as an outcome of my breakup. But that event was only fodder to my decision to disappear from the scene and pursue my own sacred life. I am not stamping social networking as an Evil of this century though. It has its good elements.

As for meeting new people and stuff like that I totally believe that there is a whole real world out there where I can be sure about the unmasked face of individuals. I am happy to have real people around me who inspire me to utter that magical sentence, ‘Life indeed is beautiful & wonderful’. Having scribbled all this, I must admit that I am eagerly waiting for a ravishing real woman enter the scene of my life some of these days. I am in no mood to enjoy the eternal bliss of life alone and fail to share it with that special person in my life. I should say ‘Wait is worth the deal’.

Family Matters

2008-06-04T02:30:00.000-07:00

The word ‘family’ had great significance in my life until recent times. But as life started moving, the realization came that I am not that much of a family oriented guy but instead someone who considers freedom of one’s self more worthwhile. But one cannot fight against the natural order of things and hence I am also part of a family. New additions to the family tree has added more excitement to be part of others life. Pavithra’s (Elizabeth) birth has ushered a new wave of happiness in my family and has seen my brother responding to his multiple roles in life with more vigor than ever. As I see their life unfold before my very own eyes I can’t help myself being a distant eye observing the natural order of things. The following shots of Pavithra were recorded just after 2 hours of her birth:

Visiting Card – The Next Big Thing

2008-05-29T13:03:00.002-07:00

In recent times the desire to flash around a funky visiting card of mine to those who stumble across my way has intensified. Every great thing ought to have a raw start, right? So I started out with the rather uncanny Windows Media Player visualization skins as background and some fonts, which I consider ‘cool’. But my yawning creativity met with the brutal criticism of an arrogant and insane graphic designer from Bangalore. So I am challenged here now to indulge in some original visiting card art over the coming days…

The design which saw the axe is the following:

Pushkar – The ill-fated Trip

2008-05-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

The trip to Pushkar was the most anticipated event last year but for me it happened during the extremely wrong time. I seriously fell sick (high fever) there at Pushkar and as a result of which I almost lost 10-12 kg of my body mass. I shot some 3 GB of images there but tragedy again struck when I lost 2 GB of data (which actually had some decent shots) which I stored in my friends laptop. This trip was one to forget for all the wrong reasons. Anyhow I look forward for the annual Pushkar festival this year. Also I am looking forward for the Hornbill festival in Nagaland during the month of December this year.

The following are the few images from the 1 GB data which I took during the annual Pushkar fair 2007:

The ex-factor

2008-05-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

Love! Some say that it’s the sweetest thing that can even happen to man and some define it as the forbidden fruit. Even as definitions galore I had my own adventurous journey of love which has baffled me in many ways. A Kodak moment is involved only in my last affair which was brutally short lived due to reasons plenty. The dominant color of the season was yellow; a color which has lost all its magic spells & charm after all the series of fortunate events. To ponder on the reasons why things went wrong is irrelevant and to ask me the question who is she, would only resonate the same question to you – ‘Who is she?’ The yellow season has faded away into the deep sea of memory…

Edited part on 22nd June 2008 - -
As the months have passed and me becoming more silent, the following comic sketch drawed my immediate attention. For me this is an exact depiction of the present - the way things are now...

Crawford Market – The Visual Gold Mine

2008-05-24T09:56:00.000-07:00

The visual possibilities in this location are immense and comfort level shooting in this location is amazing as far as I am concerned. Strong visual hide in this market and for those who keep their eyes wide open this place holds real treasure. The local vendor here has always been extremely helpful and I am proud to be acknowledged every time I walk into Crawford. One should also be prepared though for some trouble coz rarely there are people who mistake you for lunatic photographer who are only keen to depict poverty through images. Be extremely polite to them and they will mellow down. Shooting here during the night is bit risky though as you will encounter pot and booze folks out here. The one where the man is reading Freepress was also exhibited @ Photokina 2008.

Kohliwada – yet an untapped location

2008-05-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

Even though my peers had great pleasure and success shooting in this location, the spot has somewhat not yet managed to appeal me much. It’s somewhat like a mental block and I have always managed to shoot only very less in this place. Perhaps I will go to this place again one of these days with fresh mind and capture some spell bounding moments. I prefer to shoot fashion in this location – once I have the right concept in mind I will explore this place in all its might. The boat image was exhibited @ Photokina 2008.

Dharavi – The Potter’s Lost Paradise

2008-05-24T04:09:00.000-07:00

One of the most exciting field assignment happened @ Dharavi. I teamed up with my friend Chinky in this one and we were able to produce some good and fair enough work. Dharavi even though is drenched in proverty is home to some wonderful people. I refute to the common comment that Dharavi is home to the biggest criminals. All that I was able to see here is people struggling to meet the challenges of daily life and building a safe future for the kids here. The potter families whom we met @ Kumbarvada were extremely lovable and we interacted much with these families – listening to the woes and struggles. People here are really doubtful about the Dharavi Redevelopment Programme and suspect that the programme would eventually help in destroying the livelihood of these people. There was clear cut indication that the people of Dharavi have always been victims at the hand of dirty politicians, corrupt police and goons.

These are some of the pictures which I took of the Lost Paradise here in Mumbai:

The Eternal Bliss – Sleep around the World!

2008-05-23T23:11:00.000-07:00

(This is a much anticipated project – write up on this will follow soon)

Ganesha Visarjan

2008-05-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

Ganesha Visarjan happened to be my first self assignment here in Mumbai. This was a purely journalistic type event and the adrenaline level was high to capture moments from the festival which is hailed as one among the biggest public festivals in Maharashtra. There was absolute chaos in the streets as devotees thronged the roads and it turned out to be a risky business carrying your DSLR when water and colors were being splashed all over the places. At Chowpati beach where the immersion takes place it turned out to be even more adventurous with me having to go into the sea with water levels coming even till my chest. But the efforts paid off well as I managed to capture some good images – 2 of them were personally selected by noted photojournalist Fawzan Hussein as best depictions of the festival and were also exhibited here @ Photokina 2008.

Here is a glimpse:

Life @ Alamy

2008-05-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

16^th May 2005 marked the beginning of a new phase in my life with me landing in a job with Alamy as Picture Researcher. The demands of the job were quite pressing and working to tight deadlines became a routine affair. My passion towards the medium of photography made me an instant hit at the job. Dealing with the commercial and editorial clients from across the globe gave me a clear idea about the picture demands in the industry. I finally started singing gaga about the whole affair of Stock Photography and kept myself updated even about the slightest industry moves. Working with a team of 11 picture researchers proved to be dream run for me and there was much integrity bestowed unto me as senior PR and Team Leader. I took real pride in the fact that there was no beating me when it came towards fulfilling the highest number picture research requests for clients with absolute attention in quality and quantity.

But there was increasing frustration creeping among the PRs as Alamy really didn’t had any clear filtering system for images and the entire keywording system was in absolute disarray. Even as Alamy Press Releases were going out with royal announcements about the images crossing the 10 million mark, one always doubted whether this is going to be a downward trend for the company. But turning a dead eye to the facts, the Alamy experience only boosted my quest to be more serious about the medium. The way I see things – if one manages to excel as a picture researcher with Alamy you got to have clear skills. By the end of June 2007 I left the job to pursue a more lucrative photography career path. There had been an ironic tragedy also – few months back Alamy dissolved its picture research team. The official version for the decision is still not out. But consider the absolute dismay of someone digging for images from 12.26 million images which are not categorized wisely. I am happy over the fact that my stint with the Alamy was at a phase when things were not that messy.

My First DSLR Picture!

2008-05-23T15:09:00.000-07:00

As I increasingly came to realize my passion towards photography I decided to be the proud owner of a DSLR Camera. Even as the chunk of Indian Photographers swears by the Canon range, how can I ever disown my extreme fanfare towards Nikon Range of Cameras? You should have listened to the beat of my heart when I held the brand new Nikon D200 in my hands. It was such an unbelievable moment in my life. But what followed that event was even more dramatic. Since I knew that my days with serious photography has begun I wanted my first digital image to be something really unique. I was thinking of all amusing concepts for my first image and then I finally decided to take a portrait of my mother. It was such an effort to convince my mother to pose for this unique venture of mine. But to my surprise she nodded yes. She was looking very natural and my mother she is always the most adorable and sweetest woman alive on earth for me. I have been such an unworthy son though :) What followed remains a timeless classic among us ‘the family’. The portrait essentially captured the way my mother is and for me it was a classic start with my Nikon D200.

The following image is dear to my heart and to you the world – here is my ‘Amma’.

The Beginning

2008-05-23T13:36:00.000-07:00

My turn to photography came as a rather big surprise to many (even I am still amused). Most of them were under the impression that I’m custom made to lead a journalistic life. The life of a journalist always appealed me to great extend and I was enjoying my success as a good journalism student. My faculty had such high hopes that I would be stepping into the medium with lots of energy and zeal. My successful internship in print & visual media further boosted my morale and confidence. This was further rocketed when THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS Cochin bureau offered me a post as Reporter/Sub-editor immediately after my graduation. But behind the scenes a picturistic revolution was taking place within me and I ended up declining the offer. I was falling in love with my Nikon FM3A and I should admit that I adored seeing the world through the camera eyes, during the very few times where I actually used them to freeze images which moved me.

The following are not Henry Cartier Bresson type images but rather humble frozen moments from my beginning stages when I was literally struggling with correct exposures (Aperture, shutter speed – what are they???). So no need to go on and criticize them brutally, just sit back and enjoy

Waiting for someone: This one was shot at Kovalam beach. My friend was sitting and just enjoying the waves... the colors and the waves caught my attention and there the moment was frozen....
Green Green: I took a week end break to Munnar hill station and how can one miss noticing the tea plantations.. I remember yelling to my friend.. "This one I am taking for Kannan Devan Group".

Some Utter Sense about me :)

2008-05-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

Life so far has been an amusing journey filled with all the unexpected high-five & set-back situations. Among the millions of humans treading the earth I stand out different just as the way you are. I’ve always been free in spirit and soul and have never been easily influenced by the vanities of the world. As an artist photographer I look at the rapid and snail movements in my world and try to understand the meaning behind the existence of things, she’s & he’s and it’s. Some tried to choke me telling this there is intense competition in the world and that the in motto is ‘survival of the fittest’ and all. But believe me, I don’t care – for me there is no competition and I know none who is not fit. Even as everyone is busy taking care of their career, building their dreams into realities, going out on special dates, I walk the streets carrying my camera bag looking possibly at everything and cherishing golden moments. At this age, the experience level for me is different – it has always been different from my peers. Look close for that ‘Special’ aura

I enjoy the life I lead and I am flying towards my goals as gentle as a dove and should I also mention the snake for courtesy sake. Today I officially am back in the world of blogging -- tighten your seat belts :)