Just a leaf? Say it again, leaf, leeaff, leeaaff, leeaaaffff. Keep saying it and it takes you to a different space, one that is quiet, that is simple, that is peaceful and uncomplicated.
It is a space that has to be experienced, that is hard to describe. It’s something that is easily accessible yet one that few think about reaching for, unless they are shaken into it. It is this space that actor-photographer Sunder Ramu manages to capture, through his series of photographs of leaves titled ‘The Last Dance of the Leaves’, that was recently on display at the Sublime Galleria in UB City.
For Sunder the nudge into this space was gentle yet cathartic. It happened when he was going through a painful separation and was on a solo trip in Europe.
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“I was in Montmartre and I didn’t realize it had become cloudy. Suddenly, a gust of wind cleansed my body. It felt so good. I looked up and saw this flash of colour, it was fall in France. I hadn’t looked around earlier, so I felt like someone had just switched on the lights. The entire hill was filled with these autumn leaves. It was my first real experience of the kind of autumn you see on postcards or in films. For some reason, among all the ways I tried to fix myself, that was the moment I felt cleansed,” he recalls.
That, he says, was what inspired him to live. Like the falling leaves, he wanted to dance to his death.
“It can only happen if I really celebrate life, then I can go in peace, without baggage.”
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Since then, Sunder has spent years shooting leaves, though the explorations he makes through them have changed with time. Somewhere along the way, he stopped working on commercial/fashion photography and turned to fine art. He also established a gallery for fine art photography at his hometown, Chennai, calling it Arkanza.
“What started off with me shooting leaves across 12 countries ended up with me shooting regularly. Any time I would miss someone, I would pick up leaves and go to the studio to shoot them, or shoot them on trees,” he explains.
“For the first few years, I shot leaves off trees. I would point the camera at a leaf so the sunlight would come in from the back. Since the background then becomes overexposed, it appears to be white. It’s easier to shoot this way during the fall because then you’ll find one of them standing out and there are fewer leaves on the tree. The colour saturation is also high at that time, especially because you are focusing on it.”
As the concept evolved, Sunder says he started recreating these moments in the studio, first with bright coloured leaves and then with dry, brown leaves.
“Anything I wanted to portray expressed itself through these leaves. Later I started exploring, if I saw someone on the street I would like to dance with, I would pick up some leaves and recreate the dance in my studio. Then it started becoming less literal and I started recreating the relationships I enjoyed over time.”
When he began working on the photographs, he created simple shots, gradually moving on to more complex arrangements.“I used over 20 different lighting techniques from painting with light to shooting with back-light. All the techniques I used to shoot with people, I channelized into shooting with leaves. I am basically telling stories of people, using leaves.”
The series also juxtaposes nudes with the leaves. “Just like I represent human relationships through leaves, I wanted to show the life of a leaf through human forms. I shot over 78 different nudes over 15 years and finally used only seven or eight to depict the life of a leaf.” The intention is to fill walls with good energy. “I am now in the happiest of spaces today.”
‘The Last Dance of the Leaves’ will travel to several cities across the world, including Colombo, Singapore and New York, before returning to Chennai.
The next show will take place from May 18 to 20 at Tao Art Gallery, Worli, Mumbai.