Gautham Manohar brings a stark revelation of Nature’s plight with his photographs

“I had started getting extremely disillusioned with what I was doing, vis-a-vis what I wanted to do. As a child, I was quite keen on photography and even though it was a hobby, it was always at the back of my mind.”

In 2010, Gautham moved to New Delhi and took up wedding photography, but, “Two-and-a-half years ago, I shuttered the commercial photography business. Nature and conservation is something my wife, Ashmitha Jasper, and I feel strongly about.”

Sentinels from Dreams, Places and the Spaces in Between
| Photo Credit:
Gautham Manohar

Gautham hopes to promote conservation and increase people’s commitment and passion for Nature with his photographs, “especially in India” as he believes social development trumps conservation here.

He explains, “A big part of social development is tourism and conservation is rarely talked about. As a result, most of our beautiful tourist hotspots, especially the ones that are easily accessible, have become terribly overrun. Mass tourism has made a severe dent, particularly in North India.”

“Expert ecologists say the water situation is never going to get resolved and now, landslides have become a recurring issue. I believe greater urgency should be shown in preserving the very places we wish to visit and promote.”

Gautham says he “shows up at a place,” and tries to capture its essence without going to any of the tourist hot spots. “I hope to eventually cover the whole of the country and take my work on road shows like this.”

He says waited till his work reached “an inflection point where I was ready to show it to the public without having to explain it. That would have defeated the purpose and I wanted the photographs to speak for themselves.”

“I had to convince myself first that these varied landscapes from across the length and breadth of the country, would evoke that response instead of being seen as tourist-type, promotional pictures.“

Bridge Over Water from Dreams, Places and the Spaces in Between
| Photo Credit:
Gautham Manohar

Dreams, Places and the Spaces in Between debuted in New Delhi in January this year and Gautham says he was quite taken aback by its reception. “My work is a classic documentation of landscapes, captured largely in black and white. There is nothing edgy about them. Despite that, I was surprised by the genuine interest it elicited.”

The positive feedback encouraged Gautham to bring it to Bengaluru, he hopes to showcase it in Mumbai or Kolkata next.

Though a majority of Gautham’s work is in black and white, he says it is not intentional. “It presents a range of possibilities and helps convey the mood in a way that is personal to the viewer.”

He also feels between the tones of pure white and pure black there is an infinite spectrum of greys that bring out far more than colour does. “We are so used to seeing in colour that we rarely spend time interpreting it. But when an image is presented in black and white, it forces us participate in the viewing. There is a level of abstraction it brings.”

Dreams, Places and the Spaces in Between by Gautham Manohar will be on display at Bangalore International Centre from March 27 to 29. Entry free. Details of his work and shows on @only10fineart