There’s a moment when a person laughs; when she ceases being self-conscious and just lets go, exposing her teeth in a wide grin. Photographer Naveen Gowtham captures this moment — of women from across ages and strata of society — for his current photo series titled ‘Suyambu’, meaning self-manifested. The 30-year-old is part of Chennai Weekend Clickers (CWC) and runs a photography company called ‘Agal’. His photos have been featured in five of CWC’s exhibitions at Lalit Kala Akademi.
‘Suyambu’ started as Gowtham’s entry for CWC’s Instafest in December. “We were asked to upload one photo a day under a recurring hashtag on our Instagram page,” he says. It all began with a poem by poet Vannadasan that Gowtham came across. “It spoke about she who is self-manifested, she who is all-encompassing, the seed for everything in the universe…” Gowtham decided to photograph ‘her’, who, ‘Other than the soil, is the only one capable of giving life’. His Facebook album starts with the above line in Tamil. “I enjoyed doing the series and continued to take pictures even after the end of the stipulated one month,” adds Gowtham.
Gowtham travels extensively with his camera. “Not just for work; I randomly take off in buses and on my bike,” he says. He prefers small towns, villages, by-lanes, and cramped streets, which according to him, have the best stories. He has been interacting with hundreds of women for his photo series, 80 of whom can be seen on his social media pages. “I found out how these women, despite all the problems they face, don’t stagnate. They just keep moving,” he says. “They taught me the best life lessons.”
A wizened old lady, her criss-crossed cheeks stretched in a grin; a dusky little girl with lopsided pigtails and a shy smile; a woman with a pot balanced on her head, sporting a sparkling nose-stud and a smile that outshines it…Cropped to the bust, the photos are all in black-and-white. Gowtham doesn’t know where this journey is headed; but he knows that he’s going to be at it for a long time. “It’s nice to see people smile; and even nicer to photograph them. It makes me happy,” he beams.
Goddess of the street
He saw her during a trip to Kolkata. Dressed in rags with dishevelled hair, she lies on the pavement. But what’s striking, are the four dogs at her feet. They keep guard day and night and never leave her side. When passers-by offer her food, she eats, but only once her dogs are fed.
Village photographer
She’s never seen a camera in her life, has no idea where to get one or how to operate it. But she wants to become a photographer. Her mountain village of Nellivasal, she says, is the most beautiful, and is home to fascinating birds and insects. She wants to show them to the rest of the world through her photos.
‘Have you eaten?’
Working as a cook at Cuckoo Forest School, Singarapettai, she will rest only when everyone has eaten. ‘Have you eaten?’, ‘Have you eaten?’— she cannot stop asking this to whoever she sees. No one knows when she eats; she is too busy feeding other people.
Her first photo
“Don’t photograph me! I’m not beautiful!” she protested. But her eyes widened when she saw the end result. This is the first time she has been photographed. She didn’t get one taken even during her wedding.
