Aman Chotani is a storyteller. He tells stories through his photographs. And he travels incessantly to get these stories through his lens. He brings us some of those interesting tales through “Portraits Talk”, a collection of 28 frames shot last year. The exhibition will be displayed at Open Palm Court, India Habitat Centre from May 29th to June 1st.
The show is dedicated to Nepal, the place Aman has often travelled to and has a lot of friends. Aman reveals that proceeds from the sales of the images will be donated for relief work in Nepal.
“Whether or not I make money from my work doesn’t matter but I want to travel to beautiful, rustic, adventurous locations, to capture untold stories, unseen traditions and unprecedented experiences. Interactions and experiences enrich you and then your work,” says the 25 year-old photographer who trained under a Nat Geo photographer in Durban.
Ever since Aman came back from Durban, he has been travelling. The young lensman has covered the entire country except the North East. And that’s how the photographs in the show will give the viewer a glimpse of the entire country and its neighbours like Nepal which is battling a tragedy. Young boys studying to be priest in Banaras, a woman preparing food on a chulha with all the smoke on her face, a 109-year-old woman in Nepal and her 94-year-old daughter, and old beggar looking at her face in the mirror…are some of vignettes of life that the viewers will encounter in Aman’s frames. In the entire collection, the only black and white photograph has been shot in Nepal.
“Do these young boys who are studying in an ashram really want to be there? A woman beggar looks at her photograph in mirror and asks who I am…when you travel you get to meet an array of people and get an insight into their lives,” says Aman, who had his last solo in Delhi last year.
Since Aman is a storyteller, drama has to be an integral part of his scheme which it is. “There is a cinematic effect in my photos. A lot of drama. I don’t pick any random person or a place as a subject. A different face, a different place attracts me. And through just one shot, I try and tell everything about my subject.”
Another aspect crucial to his work is light. “I follow the pattern of light on faces, on places. People say that lighting is everything in a photograph which is true but how you control it is what makes a difference,” says Aman, who is now penning a book on the subject called “Follow the Light”, which he plans to release next year.
