S U B I R   C H A T T E R J E E    

Black and White Art Photographer

 

I never wanted to be a photographer. I am unaware, that is, of any conscious decision of wanting to become one. Someone very special saw some of my pictures and said maybe I was one… I have been involved in images though…I direct commercials and have been doing so for the last ten years. There is a considerable amount of image manipulation in commercials and I think my taste for rather austere and in a sense minimal b&w must have evolved as a kind of reaction to that.

I live and work out of Bombay, India. I am an amateur musician and am passionately fond of Western Classical music and the Grateful Dead… yes it is possible to juggle Bartok and Jerry Garcia!!…believe me. There have been two enormous influences that have shaped my artistic development …music has been one…so I mention it.

The other…very personal…is a deep and profound love of Zen Buddhism… and over the years it has gently but surely shaped my artistic sensibilities and become me. I like to believe some of it has seeped into my work.

I believe sometimes, some forms…objects…moments…like silence, absorbs the mind, frees it of petty detail, and serves as a visual guide…a means for penetrating through the 'realm of multitudes'. The mind freed of 'logic' and 'formal definitions' can overcome the rational and cross into a world devoid of labels and categories. Where 'understanding' comes before analytical comprehension. Where the specificity of line, contour, pattern is done away with. Where 'meaning' is not sought anymore…in the rational sense. Where the picture does not 'fit' a category and does not articulate an 'ideal' recognizable form… It is then that it begins to appeal to our sense of shape…texture…tone…our feel for solidity. It allows us to roam free of restraint into areas of darkness and light…free to form other associations and form other alliances.

I believe if a picture of a chair can become an image…a cluster of memories and alliances … …become a sort of a 'gate'…a 'portal' and allow us to enter into a 'waking dream state' and induce a sort of reverie…I think then we are really 'seeing'. I think reverie is important…because it returns us to ourselves…because we turn to contemplation…and are able to cross the gulf of logic and theory into intuitive understanding.

Where art becomes sterile and words become dry.

I do not shoot with this as a conscious goal…but I believe in this and it is a part of me. Some pieces of music have this ability…some films too. I believe this potential is fully realized in photography…because it is an image held…for contemplation and introspection. It is in no hurry to go anywhere…it is there for us to 'see'.

"At the sound of the bell in the silent night, I wake from my dream in this dream world of ours. Gazing at the reflection of the moon in a clear pool, I see, beyond my form, my real form."

I work on 35mm and print directly from negative…using warm tone fiber paper. I use an old Nikon F3 and a Leica R6.2. I would love to hear your comments.

Email : bushido@vsnl.com
Subir Chatterjee