The light is mellow, glistening off the leaves outside music composer and keyboardist, Zubin Balaporia’s apartment in South Bombay. On entering his home, the light follows, touching upon the walls lined with freshly framed photographs. The 35 prints on display are ready to be transported in an SUV to the light and furniture store Baro, where the musician is hosting his debut photography exhibition.
New mediums
Part of the legendary Indian rock band, Indus Creed, for the last 30 years, Balaporia has now taken to a new art form to dabble with. It’s interesting to see how his passion for photography is inherently present in the umpteen number of images hanging in his home music studio, which also include sketches by his two children. Over the past five years, the musician has made a collection of photographs while travelling through the Amazon, jungles of Laos, Ladakh, Siberia, and the Arctic Circle amongst other places. His exhibition titled, Blessed by the Light, plays with highlights and shadows, patterns and symmetry, made with sunlight, or rather the lack of it.
Balaporia grew up watching his father make photographs for product companies in a makeshift studio in his home. “I believe there was a dormant gene that has only been tapped now, mostly because of the encouragement of my photographer friend Subir Chatterjee,” says the artist. In 2013, the two friends set off on a musical trip through Germany, where they toured the homes and concert halls of various German composers. On the same trip, they visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, which had a deep impact on Balaporia. “At the time I felt the need to take a bunch of photographs as a means of expression, and ended up shooting a lot on my iPhone 4,” he elucidates. After that, the photo bug bit hard and he began reading photo-books extensively.
Decisive utopia
The works of Henri Cartier Bresson and Raghu Rai played a huge part in inspiring Balaporia to attempt finding his own photographic voice. Whether it’s in photographs of elephants in Kaziranga, a series of monks in Paro, Punakha, Thimpu, and Cambodia, night time in Paris, or horses in Bhutan, Balaporia has made the light his central protagonist. In a photograph of two elephants walking across Kaziranga with their mahout, Balaporia captures the shaded pink of dawn which enhances the mellowness of the moment. “I call this one utopia,” he says.
His romance with the light began on a rather strenuous journey through Arunachal Pradesh when he faced a panic attack after a particularly long day of travel. “I remember telling myself to just wait for morning to come. And indeed, when the 5.30am sunlight hit my bedside, I finally understood why people have been worshipping the sun all these years,” shares Balaporia. Even though the exhibition was earlier going to be named, ‘Faces and Spaces,’ after seeing an image of a monk bathed in sunlight, Balaporia’s wife thought Blessed by the Light seemed more appropriate.
In future exhibitions, Balaporia plans to compose his own music to play alongside the photographs. When asked how similar or different making a photograph is to creating music, the photographer excitedly claims how the two art forms intertwine seamlessly. “Producing music is so much about judging instruments, palettes, textures, levels, and tonalities, how is that any different from photography?” questions Balaporia.
Blessed by the Light is ongoing at Baro, Lower Parel until October 14
