sunil janah passes away

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3559899.ece

The  older generation  of Indian photographers continues to  pass away. Sunil Janah was younger than Homai Vyarawalla and apparently  more politically committed to a certain politics. He had been a member of the Communist party of India and its official photographer -  in his early years.

His political sensibility , however, did not continue into his other work. His very male gaze, the gaze that he turned towards women - especially tribal women -certainly did not show his Marxist politics.  The book that Satyajit Ray designed for him was actually called  "The Second  Creature". The nudes in it lay bare the lack  of any awareness of the politics of his gaze. He says, in one of the captions in the book, that "I took this photograph from a low angle to emphasize her character" but the low angle works mainly to emphasize her breasts.

 There is another point  I have to make about the politics of his photography. The tribal women were not the only nudes he shot.  He photographed his middle class women friends too.The  middle class women , though, were given a certain right to their images - their nudes would not be shown or published during their lifetimes.That was a right  that he denied  the "Other" tribal  women. The Second Creatures. 

tis that time of the year.

                                      the birds do it. the bees do it. all life does it. love and grow. 

water wars.

http://www.alternet.org/story/155969/its_no_longer_enough_to_regulate_corporate_greed_the_global_water_crisis_demands_a_paradigm_shift

the water crisis is global. it effects even the birds.  they should be flying high and not  desperately hunting for water that is  locked away, out of reach, in  plastic water bottles. 

imaging identity

                          of the  "I" in our times - images,  and imaging imagined identities

mount damavand again

the volcano vs cokeland.  one guess to figure out which is more dangerous  . 

mount damavand.

mount damavand is an active volcano. it is also the tallest peak in a nation that is now under a multipronged attack.   the black and white reality of those secret attacks has to pointed out. pointedly. 

invisible but still ART ??

"This show puts its faith in the audience, in our willingness to think and our openness to ideas. But it cannot quite escape the trap of its own theme for not one of these works achieves total invisibility. Even in the black room there are discernible figures, pinpricks of light and visible forms. As long as our eyes are open, we continue to make pictures of the world."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/jun/17/invisible-art-about-unseen-hayward-review

the first clouds

the first meghdhoots. the ambassadors of the rains have brought  rain.  finally ! that green green growth is not far behind. 

documentary photography. challenges to the debate

"The story of the photos raises a number of fascinating issues: about exploitation, voyeurism and embedded reportage; about the moral responsibility of a photographer or any artist who deals in non-fiction; about the differences between images seen in a gallery and images posted online; and about the meaning of informed consent. In moving in with her subjects, Popova was doing what the great Walker Evans did in the 1930s when he and James Agee moved in with a sharecropper family while working on a magazine piece that turned into the book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. And, like Evans, she was accused of exploiting people too naive and destitute to understand the implications of what they'd agreed to."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/jun/15/irina-popova-photographs-lilya-family

from the land of Jacob Riss and Lewis HIne

From America, the land of Jacob Riss, Lewis Hine  and so many other documentary photographers comes this incredible and unbelievable story  of photography censorship. A new kind of censorship in the Land of the Free . A censorship  that uses Privacy laws  and Child Pornography laws to suppress  strong images . images that might help stop its plunder of  Mother Earth.Its poisoning of humanity.Its profits.

Riss, Hine and so many others had used photography to ban Child Labour and create National Parks . That was  then . and now you have this. --------

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/big-coal-s-sleazy-war-20120607#ixzz1xGYB5pxK 

Birdsong helps clean the air and cultivate life.

 "But this symphony isn’t just for the birds. Chirping actually can stimulate trees to open their stomata, the tiny pores on the underside of leaves that let out oxygen and take in carbon dioxide, moisture, and minerals. Birdsong helps clean the air and cultivate life."


http://places.designobserver.com/feature/the-shape-of-green-sustainability-and-aesthetics/34518/

WANTED ! WESTERN EYES. OM IS JUST A BRAND

HERCULES !

thats the bicycle. Hercules. its the answer to cleaning up Kathmandu's Augean stable mess. Way to go. 

buddhism and marxism

http://www.tricycle.com/web-exclusive/occupy-buddhism?page=0,0

If Buddhism is finally about liberation from ignorance and errant views, both individually and collectively, then we might consider studying not only what we are but also the culture that invisibly influences and dominates us. Quite apart from advocating any alternative to the current system, we may discover sources of suffering and new patterns of desire and ignorance that are embedded in our actions. The study of capital would quickly become the study of suffering and false consciousness. 

HUG THE GREEN !

THE GREEN THAT IS GROWTH. GROWTH THAT IS HEALTHY AND SAFE FOR MOTHER EARTH.

Photography has certain inherent qualities which are only possible with photography – one being the delineation of detail… why limit yourself to what your eyes see when you have such an opportunity to extend your vision? - Edward Weston - 1923, about a conversation with Johan Hagemeyer., 1000 Photo Icons by Anthony Bannon (Foreword), George Eastman House , ISBN: 3822820970 , Page: 486

E. Alkazi in Art Heritage 5 - 1986 "The horror pictures of Satish Sharma seize us by the throat. They possess us. They are not hallucinations, ----- And my own text in the same catalogue

the eyes can do it. create compassion. make one behave more morally

Kahneman: You just have to make sure that the right picture is hanging above the cash box. If a pair of eyes is looking back at them from the wall, people will contribute twice as much as they do when the picture shows flowers. People who feel observed behave more morally.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/interview-with-daniel-kahneman-on-the-pitfalls-of-intuition-and-memory-a-834407.html

new york times. oct. 29 1999

"It would be good to see any of these artists in more depth, and solo shows by outstanding figures like Ms. Chhachhi, Ms. Singh and Satish Sharma are overdue."


http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/29/arts/art-in-review-in-black-and-white.html

new york times , dec. 26th 1997

"For example, in the photographs by Satish Sharma (born 1951), which hang across the gallery from hers, political figures appear not in person but as spectral public icons. A sculptured bust of Nehru crumbles from neglect; the face of Rajiv Gandhi peers out from a torn poster under a commercial sign reading ''dynasty.''

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/26/arts/art-review-many-shows-and-many-indias.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

wanted. needed. desired... in this grey world. ENLIGHTENMENT !

the text for my first exhibition. art heritage 5. new delhi - 1986

old tear sheets. old memories from ages ago

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article3490676.ece?homepage=true

"India also needs to revisit its cultural history with renewed imagination to rediscover its reservoir of knowledge traditions. And the artist and artist-driven cultural movements must be central to chartering these new pathways not for tourists or for travellers but for seekers."

the future of the buddha's birthplace. reading the wheel of karma/dharma . which RED will it be