Art&dealramshergillaugust2013

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International

Rajesh Punj

JULY 2013 art&deal

Le ratan

RAM SHERGILL Everything Beautiful &

Angela Dunn wearing Andrew Heather', Fashion Weekly cover"

Meeting previously at a Sotheby’s opening of the work of Indian designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, Ram Shergill was their chosen photographer, delivering lavish photo-visuals for a major publication that celebrated the grandiose work of the two stalwart fashion designers. Shergill was chaperoned by two young PR girls, who were as polite as they appeared competent; and it is here that I introduced myself to the Elvis styled British Asian photographer. In a glorious evening jacket and sequined shoes Shergill strides over the heavy redcarpet, and through the exhibition, eventually handing me a card and suggested we meet again to talk more. His generosity was further demonstrated by his wish to walk me through the auction of accomplished styled clothing and large scale photographers. Besides the works to commission for the aforementioned publication, Shergill had produced a whole series of vast photographs that were composed in the style of the Italian Baroque painter Michelangelo Caravaggio; in near darkness his figures rise to a summit, that recall the anguish and torment rendered so definitely by Caravaggio in Italy in the late 16th century. These works and Shergill’s position on the international photographic scene suggest someone who has grafted for his moment in the limelight, and he apologies little for wanting his own vision to prevail. Meeting Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla was for Shergill a defining moment in his maturing career, a “homecoming” as he describes it, and for him their new found relationship has become a fundamental lynch-pin for his own work. Shergill was given carte blanche to photograph their costumes as he saw fit, and it proved a revelation for a photographer more accustomed to the more rigid dogma of European and American art practice. ‘Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla have such impeccable taste, which was similar to the high couture style of Isabella Blow and Philip Treacy, but in India their talent and eccentricityproved more satisfying; it was my homecoming.’ Returning to see Ram Shergill at his studio/apartment in central London, we arrange a very civilized tea and dark chocolate biscuit fueled conversation. I root

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