This photograph was taken at Herobhanga Village near Canning, West Bengal, during the Moi-Charan (Bull Racing) Festival.
Instagram is taking its photographs from phone screens to gallery
walls, with its first-ever photography exhibition in India. Being held
in Kolkata from Jan. 7 to 9, Bengal's Diversity in Pictures captures stories from the eastern Indian state through the lenses of local Instagrammers.
The first Instagram exhibition was held at Phoville, New York in
2014, but this is the first such show in India. It features the work of
17 Instagrammers, whose images were curated with the help of the local
community Calcutta Instagrammers. The pictures are being displayed as life-sized Instagram posts placed inside a frame.
Japanese choreographer and martial arts specialist Akiko Kitamura performing in the streets of Kolkata.
They
include photographs of landscapes and wildlife from the Sundarban
mangroves; festivals such as Holi, Ramzan and Durga Puja; and cultural
traditions such as Chhau dance and pata-chitra
painting, taken by both professional photographers as well as amateurs.
There are also quiet moments from everyday life such as a waiter
carrying a tray in Kolkata's historic Indian Coffee House, and local
children jumping into the Ganges river in front of the city's Howrah
bridge.
"The
Instagram community in Kolkata is highly active and passionate about
their city. We are supporting people who share a diversity of stories
and perspectives of what home in Bengal means to them and feel that this
is a natural amplification of how people use Instagram," an Instagram
spokesperson said.
The Calcutta Instagrammers group founded by Sammyabrata Mullick six
months ago as a "repository of pictures of Bengal" is an example of this
vibrant community. With over 2,100 followers, Calcutta Instagrammers
organises regular Instagram walks, meets and discussions.
Mullick's photograph portrays a local pata-chitra artist painting the
image of goddess Durga, during the festival of Durga Puja in Howrah
district, a hub for handicrafts and pottery."Instagram is a good
platform to share a picture and get appreciated from different parts of
the world," Mullick, who pursues photography as a hobby, says.
A traditional pata-chitra artist draws an image of Durga during the the Durga Puja festival at Howrah.
A waiter dressed in a classic white
uniform, rushes up the stairs of Kolkata's historic Indian Coffee
House on College Street. The cafe is a popular hangout for students,
artists and intellectuals.
On
the other hand, Reuters photojournalist Anindito Mukherjee considers
Instagram to be the right platform to show photographs "which don't get
the right opportunity in publications". Mukherjee often takes time out
from official assignments to take Instagram photographs with his phone
camera.
"A phone is always with me and so becomes a handy tool," says
Mukherjee. "Getting the right moment is more important than covering it
later with a professional camera." Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
0 التعليقات:
إرسال تعليق