Page 62 - Tehelka Issue 15 August 2018
P. 62
column
The big picture: Clicking
the country with a class
Coming from three generations of photographers, Amit Pasricha
Culturati is known as the ‘panoramist‘ of India whose masterpiece
‘Monumental India’ created a wave in the year 2007
ArshiyA sethi
mit Pasricha‘s photog- ence and not the fleeting moment, and
raphy masterpiece in become an experiential photographer”.
2007-‘Monumental It is evident that you need to be much
Dr. Arshiya Sethi writes India’ with text by Aman more than that. You need to be expan-
on cultural issues. Nath and a foreword sive in the field of vision, as well as the
After a rich career of A by William Dalrym- imagination. As if to prove this assump-
working on tangible ple, caused a sensation when it was tion Pasricha adds “The shot has to be
and intangible aspects published. Your breath stopped as you first composed in your head since your
of the ecosphere of the gazed at the panoramic views of North camera cannot do that. Your attempt
arts, she runs the Kri India’s famed monuments and sites. But is to bring your audience to where you
Foundation that Pasricha had been captivated not just stood as you conceived your photo-
promotes arts, by the grand monument- the imposing graph, so in viewing your picture they
activism in the social Islamic tombs, the sprawling Hindu and become partners in your production.
and development Jain temple complexes, royal palaces, While a regular photograph is com-
sector, especially via colonial grandeur and majestic forts, but posed by the eye through the viewfind-
‘artivism’, and the also by the lesser known architectural er, the panorama can only be imagined
generation of knowl- gems. Not just the outer architecture but since the human eye is totally incapable
edge on intersecting the inner halls, including the magnifi- of comprehending on its own!”
issues. cent darbar halls where maharajas once “My panoramic photograph comes
held a formal audience, and the opulent close to the visual impression you will
interiors of their private apartments, carry back having spent a few minutes
with mirrored decorations, chandeliers, or hours around a certain place, influ-
and luxurious brocades, all became the enced of course by my point of view. So,
subject of his monumental panoramas. the cover of Monumental is the sum
It was as if he changed the way we total of standing on the opposite bank of
looked at scale and buildings. He went the Yamuna and experiencing a sunrise
on to change his email to include the at the Taj. Incidentally, the iconic image
While a regular word ‘panoramist’ in his email id- so of Vijaypath was the result of me spend-
ing several hours atop an extendable
complete was his identification with
photograph is this format. Fire ladder that I had borrowed from
composed by the cool looking father of two, “‘Monumen- the Delhi Fire Services. So to those who
“Actually”, says Amit, a young and
say that one gets a good photograph
eye through the tal India’ was not my first book using through sheer luck, I would say ‘yes’, but
viewfinder, the stitched panoramas. It was in Aman more importantly, you need dogged-
Nath’s ‘Dome over India’ that I first
ness for sure!” No wonder they say about
panorama can only used this format”. On being asked how photographers that they make ordinary
be imagined since he moved to his signature panoramic things look extraordinary since they do
format, Amit said with a laugh, “Well,
not look, but see!
the human eye is first you need to be fed up with what you You could well say that Amit Pasricha
totally incapable of are doing. Then you have to be equally had this passion for photography in his
interested in both the scale and the
genes. His grandfather, Fateh Chand
comprehending on detail in the world observed, and finally, Pasricha owned a photo studio on busy
Janpath even before independence,
you must want a svisual artist, to feel
its own! says Amit the need to convey the overall experi- which was well known for its portrait
Tehelka / 15 august 2018 62 www.Tehelka.com
