What better way to cherish your childhood memories than document it through photographs. Sathish Kumar, a Chennai-based photographer, does exactly that.
Travelling back to his hometown Kancheepuram for over three years now, he records every detail that reminds him of his childhood. PondyART has exhibited his photographs at Hotel Qualité across Bharathi Park.
Aptly titled ‘Home’, Sathish Kumar says that his work is a deeply personal project focusing on his childhood, growing up in Kancheepuram and his memories with his late father.
“These are the pictures of my hometown, my family, my life and my father. My family left Kancheepuram seven years ago. While I moved to Chennai, others from my family went to Bengaluru,” he says.
Mr. Kumar adds: “Influenced by my uncle, I took to photography and completed B.Sc in Visual Communication. My love for photography grew as I visited photo exhibitions in Delhi and other places with my friends. My father passed away three years ago. I missed him and wanted to record all the memories I had with him so I went back to the place where I grew up.”
Open till Nov. 21
The exhibition is open 24 hours and is free to the public. It will remain on the wall until November 21. Mr .Kumar has been invited to show his works at Angkor Photo Festival in December.
PondyART Foundation utilises public space to build awareness on different issues through fine art photography.
“In recognition of the long history of Hotel Qualité, the location of the temporary exhibition space offered PondyART by property owner M. Rajarathnam, we decided to show only Tamil photographers work in this space for as long as it is available. Emerging talent Sathish Kumar was the obvious choice for this series given his beautiful photographic interpretation of his childhood memories in the region and the direct visual reference to Pondicherry. We hope to bring the work of other Tamil photographers to the public at this site or another over the next few months if community funding becomes available. PondyART has brought out 30 exhibitions since 2013 and is searching for funding for their future projects,” said Kasha Vande of PondyART.
