Nithya Radhakrishnan, an IT employee, grew up in the naturesque town of Namakkal, surrounded by gardens filled with kanthal malar . For Radhakrishnan, the wild flower, which most of her friends said looked like five curly human fingers, was gloriosa superba . Born to Botany professors who taught at a Government college in Namakkal, Radhakrishnan had, to everyone’s surprise, started pointing at flowers using their scientific names, at the age of three. The interest is intact even today. When she and her mother are in the kitchen, their conversation, most often, revolves around questions such as: “Which family do tomatoes belong to? Did you know that the brinjal and sundakkai (turkey berry) also belong to the tomato family?” says Radhakrishnan. We later learn that the tomato family is called Solanaceae.
All in the family
Radhakrishnan is an anthophile; somebody who is attracted to flowers. She is also into photography, an interest she picked up from her father. Unfortunately, she couldn’t pick up the skill, for he passed away when she was just 14. He used a Yashica SLR, which was passed on to Radhakrishnan. Seven years ago, she graduated to a Canon DSLR, and two years ago, her husband, Karthik Muthuvali, a poet and photographer himself, introduced her to macro photography. Ever since, Radhakrishnan’s world has never been the same. The macro lens magnifies the image 10 times than it actually is. Additionally, you could also use a macro filter, which zooms in further. Radhakrishnan embraced the new medium, for now she could see the dew drops, the veins on the leaves and the pattern on the petals with a clarity she did not have before.
Fuelled by the urge to capture diverse flowers, Radhakrishnan and her husband travelled to France, Switzerland and Germany. They spent hours on the foothills of the Alps, capturing flowers that changed significantly in looks and fragrance with change in altitude. “There was this tiny white flower with yellow and red dots, which I was bowled over by. I later learnt it was called saxifrage. And for the first time, I saw blue and purple forget-me-nots, in Engelberg, Switzerland.” More recently, the couple made a trip to Venice, to celebrate the New Year, and “to my surprise, though it was not the season, we spotted one cherry blossom tree, where I camped for over one-and-a-half hours, just taking pictures”. Now, she has a whole series on cherry blossoms.
Her next big flower-shoot is going to be in the foothills of the Himalayas. Meanwhile, she is busy post-processing thousands of different flowers that she shot in Namakkal, her husband’s hometown in Tiruvannamalai, and at Semmozhi Poonga in Chennai. This includes changing the colour, adding effects, just to create a dreamy effect.
More importantly, Radhakrishnan is on an important mission. “I own a stack of letters that my dad sent to my mom, during their courtship. Each letter has a painting of a flower and the botanical name written beside it. There are over 75 such letters written over a period of seven years… my aim is to hunt for all those flowers and click them for real.” And display each photo beside the sketch made by her father, in a solo show — a heart-warming tribute to a love story that starred many poppies, chrysanthemums and peonies.
Check out Radhakrishnan’s photos at Niths Photography on Facebook.
