HYDERABAD: When Manish Kumar set out to tell a photo story through his camera, he wanted to create an album which recreated two cultures. “It is often said you can take a Bengali out of Bengal but you cannot take the Bengal inside him/her. We decided to showcase this and depict the conspicuous attributes of Bengali women across ages. Then we decided to blend the unique cultures of Kolkata and the city of Nizams,” smiles Manish. The idea paved way for his latest project – a photo story titled ‘A pinch of Bengal on the city of Pearls’.
“When we talk of Kolkata, we talk of colours and the old-world charm of the streets. We wanted to showcase that culture in Hyderabad and depict it in a visual form,” he explains. A native of Delhi, Manish works as a software professional and is passionate about photography.
The project was meticulously planned and a colleague Sharmishta Deb, who is in marketing transformed into the model. Wearing a bright red sari and sleeveless green blouse in a typical Bengali style, Sharmistha, a Bengali exudes a classic look with her bindi and traditional shanka polo red and white bangles. “The idea was to create a royal feeling and present her as the queen,” states Manish. The photo shoot took place at Chowmahalla Palace, Charminar, Lad Bazaar and Purana Pul. “There was no specific plan and we roamed around the places and randomly selected locations and used them as the backdrop to shoot pictures,” says Manish.
The pictures are like a walk through the history and 25 of them were showcased during the recent Hyderabad Bengali film Festival held at Prasad preview theatre. “The Bengalis in the audience loved it and they remembered their native place,” smiles Manish. He is also the winner of the #my travalogue contest and the daily shot contest by Nat Geo. Started as an experimental project, Manish is glad that it has received appreciation; he hopes to create more visual narratives. For now, he plans to showcase his photo story on different platforms.
