|
Entertainment
Mountain magic
A spectacular sight...
"WE CAN never reproduce Nature," says J. Ramanan, a mountain photographer. But his camera has managed to capture the awesome Himalayas, the lush valleys of the Kodai hills and much more quite impressively.
"Call of the Mountains", an exhibition of his photographs on show at the Balcony, C.P. Ramaswamy Road, provides glimpses of the various moods of the mountains and Man's romance with them. While Ramanan has chosen black and white for the mountains, the flowers and the faces are in colour. The section on faces is striking. The wizened, smiling face of an old sadhu (a Chinese who was once an aeronautical engineer!), the joyous smile of a young Kashmiri girl in her traditional attire, the mother and child, an old woman... each face is different yet there is a similarity. The mountains, the glaciers and icicles have been captured at different times of the day. The one where Ramanan has photographed a climber against the rays of the morning sun is spectacular with the snowflakes glistening. The picture of a man sliding down the snow or the ice falls (something like a waterfall) in Pandim too stands out.
Yet another stunning photograph is of Mt. Manda. The shots of the Shivling peak with Mt. Meru in the background leave you dumb-struck. An interesting photograph is of stone slabs under which one can see ice blocks, which are in tact as they have been protected by the stone. If the black and white exhibits compel attention, the colour ones are arresting. The wild orchids, mountaineers in red suits shot against the backdrop of the snow, the lush green of the Kodaikanal hills... each photograph is a reiteration of the pristine presence of Nature in a world of chaos. Ramanan nurtures a secret desire... what would it look like if the Kodai lake is at the foothills of the Himalayas or if the Marina is surrounded by snow-capped mountains? To satiate his desire, he has superimposed two pictures and the result is fascinating. The silhouette of two horse riders on the Marina looks more like a painting...
The "Call of The Mountains" show is on till January 13, 10.30 a.m. to 8. p.m.
SAVITHA GAUTAM
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Entertainment
|
