Written by Parul |Updated: February 23, 2019 12:50:53 am
Life in Pictures
Painter Gurdeep Dhiman on winning the amateur photographer of the year award at the seventh National Photography Awards.
It is black and white that remains painter and photographer Gurdeep Dhiman’s favourite medium to express the emotions of his subjects. But it’s the vibrant colours of Holi of Barsana and Nandgaon in Uttar Pradesh that Chandigarh-based Dhiman has captured as a project for over three years, one that has won him the Amateur Photographer of the Year Award at the seventh National Photography Awards. A post graduate in drawing and painting from the Department of Fine Arts, Kurukshetra University, Dhiman uses social themes, everyday life, elements of vaastu in his work. In 2007, Dhiman got an opportunity to see the works of Chandigarh-based photographers Diwan Manna and Vijay Ozo, inspiring him to pursue photography, learning its techniques, intricacies and studying and viewing the works of photographers from across the world. “The creative work of photographers like Henri Cartier, Jimmy Nelson, Raghu Rai, and Steve McCurry has impacted my vision of creativity. A quote by Sebastiao Salgado, on how expressing emotions in a composition is paramount, had a profound effect on my vision regarding photography and this award is a validation of my work and passion,” says Dhiman. The techniques of painting — contrast, composition, rhythm, colours, control of lines, adds Dhiman, give his pictures a distinct identity and meaning.
Dhiman says all of his photography projects are long and many times ongoing. He believes time is needed for the photographer and people in front of the camera to understand and connect with each other and also know the place and what is happening there. “When you spend more time on a project, you learn to know your subjects. There comes a time when it is not you who is taking the pictures. Something special happens between the photographer and the people he is photographing. He realises that they are giving the pictures to him,” says Dhiman.
For the last three years, Dhiman has travelled every year on Holi to Barsana and Nand Gaon, said to be the village of Krishna and Radha. Dhiman says that in the first year he just kept looking for the bylanes from which the groups would emerge with buckets of water and colours. There were age-old rituals, groups from both places getting him to celebrate the festival with songs, dances and colours, and the typical clothing among others, “You have to navigate the slush, the crowd, to capture the movements, revelry and the magical experience and there’s something new every time I go,” says Dhiman.
The constant endeavour and effort, says the artist, is to look at places, people, objects with new eyes and find a new grammar to express feelings. As part of a series on Leh and Ladakh, Dhiman, apart from the majestic landscape, is capturing the natives here, whose children have left for greener pastures. Their loneliness, life in the harsh environment, stories of love and loss, are what he focuses on, with black and white dominating the palette.
Dhiman’s series on Delhi’s iconic Chandni Chowk, which he had exhibited recently and received great appreciation for, looks at life in the bazaar from dawn to dusk. The shutters with different posters, shopkeepers, customers, old traditions and customs, the textures the sunlight creates, the hustle and bustle is what Dhiman views with his camera. “Photography is like a vast ocean in which I don’t only want to swim on the surface. I intend to measure the depth of the ocean and this can be possible if one is able to assimilate the magnanimity with creative thinking and impartiality. The effort is to capture a moment with vision, replete with expression and emotions, as experienced and felt while viewing the moment,” says Dhiman, who recently returned from the Kumbh Mela, where he photographed akharas and the people who live there. Right now, the old shops of Punjab, the doors, shutters, textures are what Dhiman has his eyes set on.
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