The architectural wonders of Karnataka, its people caught in various settings and moods, the colourful festivals and ritual costumes. To celebrate the 58 Karnataka Rajyothsava, six photographers bring to you photographs they took travelling though Karnataka across three years.
“Prathibimba! Reflections of Karnataka”, an ode to Karnataka through photographs, opens on October 31 at the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath and will be on show till November 2.
The exhibition features around 50 frames selected from thousands taken by photographers Anita Bora, Hema Narayanan, Raghavendra K.S., Renith Valsaraj, Sabir Ahmed and Venkatesh Katta.
Anita Bora is a photographer, blogger and writer who is usually off exploring offbeat places with her camera in tow. She quit her corporate job in 2013 and has been travelling for the last year, “accumulating” experiences. Hema Narayanan is a well-known photojournalist, writer and obsessive traveller. She quit her corporate job to explore the world through her lens. Widely published in magazines such as National Geographic Traveller, Hema also leads photography tours and undertakes commercial assignments. Raghavendra K.S. works for a leading telecom IT company, but his passion lies in photography. Many of his work is licensed through Getty Images, and his work has been in several exhibitions, travel magazines.
Renith Valsaraj pursues his passion for photography while balancing his day job as a project manager. He is one of the founders of Bangalore Shutterbugs, way back in 2003. Sabir Ahmed has been associated with photography for well over a decade. He is well-known for his black-and-white photography, with a penchant for spotting everyday details. Venkatesh Katta enjoys several genres of photography, but wide-angle and panoramic landscapes top his list of loves. He’s the co-founder and director of Toehold Travel & Photography.
All the photographers were part of a group called Bangalore Shutterbugs but then went on to do their own thing, says Anita Bora. “It’s difficult to present a State in its entirety. What we present is the tip of the iceberg. But we have travelled a lot across north and south Karnataka, the coastal belt, Bangalore and surrounding areas, travelling sometimes in groups, sometimes on our own. We all had jobs and took this on when we felt the depth of Karnataka has not been showcased in photographs. Initially we had plans for a book…” She personally enjoyed photographing Hampi, and the local people in their surroundings, says Anita, “because each time you get something new there”. She also points out how in terms of monuments and architecture in Belur, Halebid, Somnathpur, Shravanabelagola, Gulbarga, Mangalore, they were able to get new refreshing new angles because they had taken permission from the Archaeological Society of India to shoot.
Hema Narayanan also points out how they revisited many places several times, allowing for a visual narrative to develop completely. “We wanted to concentrate on the lesser-known places on the tourist circuit, like the temples around Chikmagalur, Belwadi, Marle, and structures like the Ibrahim Roza and Gol Gumbaz in Bijapur. We attended the Huthri festival in Coorg and the Mysore Dasara and captured the Mysore Maharaja during his last Dasara celebration, before he died.”
The exhibition is being sponsored by Toehold, with Foto Circle, a photography store, and is associated with Unventured and GoUNESCO — two travel groups that encourage tourism in Karnataka in different ways.
The exhibition is at the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Kumara Krupa Road, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. You can check more details on the group on www.facebook.com/ prathibimba.karnataka
