Most of my work is fueled by my love for photography which comes from the feeling I get when I see my images. But then when all out of the blue you receive appreciation from a quite unexpected corner it give you that kick that a good expresso would.
In India we have a saying '
ghar ki murgi,
dal barabar!' which would directly translate into:
a home grown chicken is as good lentil soup. Basically capturing the all to common trait amongst us to dismiss the best in our homes because we get used to seeing and experiencing them and take them for granted.
Everyone loves a little appreciation and recognition, artists I feel of course need a little extra!
Here is a mail I received from Ayush, who went to college with me.
Thanks to the encouragement I was once again tempted by the veins in the leaves during a class at Lodi Garden!
Thanks Ayush!
The mail:
'
I was just going over your blog and admiring the snaps. I wanted to put a "general" comment (i.e. not pertaining to any specific photograph) but couldnt find a place to put it - maybe you should have a "guestbook" kind of feature on the blog. Anyways, since I couldnt comment on the blog, I just thought I'd mail it to you instead.
There are two things that I really liked on the blog -
The first pertains to the whole presentation of the blog itself. I like the way you write a small note alongside most of the photos. I've got quite a few photography enthusiasts on my Facebook list but most of the time they just give a link to their Picasa / Flickr photostreams. Visiting these photostreams means that you are just presented with a thumbnail view of the photos. I guess most viewers simply click on a few thumbnails and the only description of the photo is the title.
In contrast, reading your notes alongside your photos is far more interesting and gets the viewer immersed into the blog. Also, I like the variety in these notes - sometimes you present some trivia about the subject matter (in the case of nature subjects), sometimes you touch upon the "technicalities" of the shot and on other occasions you just write a description of your experience - how the street vendor reacted to you ... or how the kids were scared of your appearance ... or how you found yourself in a dangerous position near a beehive. All this really makes the blog interesting even to a total layman on photography.
The second aspect that I like, is regarding the snaps itself - there is something about your "composition" of the snap that sets apart your work from most other stuff I've seen. Its hard for a layman like me to describe this but I'll give it a crude shot nevertheless -
When I see other photographer's works, then the angle is pretty much standard - the subject matter is composed exactly in the center with equal spacing all around. In your work, you get very unique angles for composition. Further there is a variety in the degree that you zoom in (or out). This in turn gets a variety in the background - sometimes the attention is focused on just the main subject matter ... on other occasions there are lots of elements in the snap and that gives it a "completeness to the scene" look. I'm not sure if any of this is making sense but I hope I'm able to communicate my point nevertheless.
My favorite snap (couldnt locate it on your blog) is that of a reddish leaf that you photographed. You took a closeup of that leaf to the extent that even the tiny veins in the leaf are crystal clear. And the overall reddish color with the network of veins actually makes it look like something alive and throbbing, instead of just a simple leaf that we wouldnt even notice if we passed by it. I do hope you'll display this snap during your exhibition in Lucknow ... its really my favorite out of all the ones you've put up so far.
Let me know the details of the exhibition when they are confirmed ... will definitely be attending.
Cheers,
Ayush Vaish.'
The Photograph Ayush refers to is a post in August 2009 titled 'A Leaf '.
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