A homage to his hometown is how documentary photographer from Chandigarh Ajay Bhatia refers to his exhibition of photographs on India’s first planned city, post-Independence.
The exhibition ‘Le Corbusier in India: the play of light’ at Alliance Francaise de Trivandrum is Ajay’s tribute to the Swiss-French architect, a pioneer of modern architecture, on his 50th death anniversary. Corbusier not only prepared the plan for the city of Chandigarh but also designed several buildings there. The grid-iron pattern of the city with different sectors, each with its residential and commercial zones, and the unmistakable emphasis on symmetry, have made Chandigarh synonymous with urban planning.
“This was a city designed nearly 60-70 years ago, has not been modified in any way, and continues to be functional. Now that Smart Cities are coming up across India, Chandigarh should be a model for future planning in them,” says Ajay over phone from Chandigarh.
He points out that not only was Corbusier one of the best-known architects of the 20th century, he was also given a free hand in designing Chandigarh. “He went up to the hills to study light before designing the buildings.” This, Ajay says, is reflected in the way light falls on various buildings in the city. The photographer is particularly enthralled by the interplay of light and shadows.
Then there is the geometry that Corbusier wrote about in his book Towards a New Architecture , which has also inspired Ajay to come out with this exhibition, his third in as many years.
The close-ups of the Capitol Complex or the High Court wall are examples of how shapes influenced Corbusier. The exhibition, Ajay says, is his attempt to bring out these elements in photographs.
“As these are concrete structures, the challenge was to make sure that the photographs are not flat and that they extracted the beauty of Corbusier’s buildings as much as a camera can,” says Ajay, who seriously took to photography only in 2012.
