Ashish's Photography

Udayan Vajpeyi’s talk (highlights of the video)

I would like to talk to you all a little about photography at the onset and then recite a few poems, as I am weary of delivering talks. There is very little talk about art in our country these days and that is very unfortunate. It is only art that can contribute something positive to our progress in life. The artistic development of this country, because we are an art -oriented nation, has been hampered over the centuries because of various reasons. The British tried their best to make us an agricultural nation. If we do not pay attention to our art yet again, things will become difficult. The future of this country is in the arts. The world of art is full of challenges and we have accepted these.

To give you a quick recap. The renaissance began in the 16th century and with it was born a novel viewpoint in painting. There were new perspective in philosophy, literature, and music and a revolution took place in Europe because of this change in the arts. The period preceding this was the period of darkness in Europe and a golden period in the history of our country. We attained heights in the arts in those times.

In the 16th century, during European renaissance, a major event was taking place and that was that the reality was being seen through the lens. This seeing through the lens came on the canvas. As there was no advent of the camera till then.

If you remember, this is the time when Galileo laid down that the earth was revolving and before him Kepler had seen with the telescope one of the moons of Jupiter. He suggested that that the earth is not flat but is revolving, being round.

Galileo’s concept changed Euler’s idea, which he had given earlier, of the universe. In the book by Bartok Beth one of the characters raised an interesting question about Galileo that if we consider Galileo’s theory then he seems to be opposing Christianity. This character asks the question that when the earth is flat and the farmer tills the land then god above is able watch him. But if we consider the earth as round then where will we place god?

This predicament remained unresolved for 300 yrs in Europe.

Then came along Amazon in America where we got a new definition of God according to Christian tradition that says that God is like a circle whose center is everywhere and its periphery is nowhere. This new idea put to rest most of the controversies. That is why when we say why people of Europe did not want to believe Galileo; it was because it affected their daily life and their connection with the divine.

When the lens came in we realized that all that we see through it is but an illusion. When this illusion was portrayed in painting it was known as linear perspective. If there was no lens all the major renaissance painters like Leonardo, and Michel Angelo would not have reached us.

The birth of the linear perspective in painting is a momentous event. This concept of linear perspective tied down painting with the idea that a far off object is small and the near object is larger, which is not the case. This was was brought in by Da Vinci. This produced an illusion due the use of lens so that even today if a child is not using linear perspective in his painting we teach him that his idea is wrong.

Linear perspective poses the greatest challenge to painting and photography. It was Paul Klee who finally relieved painting from linear perspective.

From here begins the challenge in photography. Liner perspective had already become a problem in painting when photography came into being. In photography it already exists because no sooner we focus the lens the linear perspective comes into being. This struggle to rid photography of linear perspective went on for a considerable length of time. In a frame the reference is always stuck to linear perspective.

The challenge is two pronged, one how to free photography of linear perspective and two the locking of the subject in this referential field. So the whole struggle is how to release the character and the imagination so that the onlooker can organize the frame according to his own viewpoint. If we look at all these photos we find the images to be free and are not locked because in the midst of the photographic struggle to liberate his photography from linear perspective, Ashish has found one of the ways to unlock a frame of its references and perspective.

One can release a photo of its perspective in many ways.

Like in Macro photography we can find a way out, but this game of name and form is always stuck with linear perspective.

Art gives a meaning, for example when a singer is singing the blending of notes and melody creates a scape and subsequently a consonance. This makes music the most philosophical genre in art as held by experts.

The struggle of photography is how to get this consonance? This consonance can be achieved when you disentangle the linear perspective and the reference from an image. The more you are able to do this the more will be the consonance.

Ashish ‘s forte is that he creates images that are liberated from linear perspective and he unlocks them so as to appear as abstract images.

Why does poetry and all art desire to be an abstraction, because in abstraction nothing is tied down and so the painting or the poem plays with you in such a way that you can create many meanings as though a fountain of understanding breaks forth. The amazing way in which he unlocks the perspective and the beauty with which he does it is incomparable, in a way viewing his images opens before us a world of meaning.

What is meaninglessness?

Every art be it poetry, be it painting, be it photography, has a material which is used to give meaning. Between material and the meaning there is a time lapse. It is in this time lapse that one drops ones ego and reaches moksha or nirvana. In these moments one experiences bliss. Although these are fleeting moments if one can sustain that state or reach there more frequently, they can give lead us to aesthetic refinement.