orizon
On the H
My images always have a Ramya
Reddy
story to tell
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R
amya Reddy is a kindled spirit who travels the land to seekout its hidden essence. Mostly one to delve into fine-art imagery, Ramya does not prefer the photography of chance. Her images are deeply deliberative efforts, relying only on small incidence. They speak of a jannat not touched by the bothers of time or space. The paradise is bound by a sense of earthiness that she confesses to have a fondness for. Back on Earth, Ramya is sprightly young at 25 and lives in the bustling city of Bangalore. Asian Photography brings to you, the lady behind the lens‌ Can you tell our readers about yourself? Image making is an integral part of my self and drives what I do with my senses, and how I understand and interpret the world. I like to think of images as visual experiences that can transcend the moments captured with
stories and depth. I love making images involving themes that capture the essence of life and all those things that make it special. I am someone who does things that mean deeply to me, and photography is my great passion. My work consists of fine-art images for which I take a concept and experiment with the medium. My images always have a flow to them, they tell a story. This way, I feel my images come together
nicely. I do not prefer to shoot randomly. I take on projects that allow me to conceptualize. I feel there’s a demand from people who look for photographers with a specific skill. Can you tell me about your tutelage under John Paul Caponigro? How much of a hand does a teacher have in shaping a student’s creative vision in this field? John Paul approaches every aspect of 27
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image making and teaching with such great passion, beauty, and detail. He is one of my greatest inspirations. There is so much one can absorb from an artist-mentor like that. The opportunity to learn strong fundamentals and techniques being a given, you get a direction to start that journey to find a personal vision, style etc. In this context, Photographic education right from my days at the Light and Life Academy has been a very important part of my growth as an artist. Though photography is more about practical experience and a way of thinking, a sound and structured understanding of fundamentals is important. Did you always have photography pegged as a career, or did you also dabble with any other professions? I always enjoyed photography, but had not really thought of it as career. I realized that it was my true calling after
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completing a business management course in college. But then, Photography was always a part of my life in; my father owns a photographic business, so I grew up around cameras, lenses and lots of wonderful photographs. So it was a very organic transition in that sense. I’m lucky that I realized this early enough. And there has been no looking back since then. You tend to obscure the faces of your subjects in your fine-art pictures, why so? I like the idea of using anonymity in my images wherever possible. It has the power to draw the viewer into an image in a very personal way. In a way, that the viewer himself could well be that subject. A face is such a strong element, and commands a lot of attention by itself. It is a story by itself. You may not want to bring it into focus when the story you’re telling is about a feeling, a certain emotion or a state of mind like solitude that is common to all of us. Anonymity gives us that choice to extend ourselves into a creation and experience it intimately. This is a relationship that happens, between our art and us. 29
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How did you come to select the sepia colours in your works? It is an effect we rarely see in photography. Is it because it creates an ‘eternal effect’? Earth colours have something so organic and physical about them. The layers and expressions in my images sync well with browns and I do feel a natural affinity to that palette. It’s very interesting to see what a tone can do to an image. It’s one of the things that can make an image transcendental. Where do you do most of your shooting? For my fine-art images, I travel a lot outdoors, which I do with my husband. He is very supportive of my work and brings out the best in me. Much of my landscapes are taken in my travels around the South. The Timeless Solitude has many pictures taken in the South. Often we discovered them when were driving. It is surprising that many would miss them. But they are right there off the road. What fascinates you so much about rustic life? More than the fascination, it is a deep love and respect for the environment, 30
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people and life forms that are a part of it. When in the outdoors there are so many things that remind us of the fundamentals of life. I feel the need to capture the essence and the beauty of those things in my own little way. By going back to the basics, we are forced to re-examine much about ourselves and our role in the world. I try to represent those questions and feelings through my images. What is the one common theme, we are likely to hear through your pictures? It is difficult to pin down on one common theme at this point, but there may be a few common threads that one can identify. My imagery might occur as moody, lyrical, and layered, all of which I believe have the power to transport us to another level of connection with the image.
Promotion is a big part when it comes to getting noticed for anyone‌ do you actively seek to expose people to your work, or has it been a reliance on word-of-mouth? I do make a conscious effort to find and reach out to the people who I think might be interested in the kind the work I do. And I use my prints to present my work as much as possible. Other than that, self-promotion happens mostly through my website and word-of-mouth. Now, I’d like to focus on having shows and attending key photographic festivals when possible, so I can introduce my work to a larger audience. How do you conceptualise your fine-art pictures? Is it something you envision them, before hand? I like to think, research, write, observe and shoot constantly for ideas. It does
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take my time to figure out what I want to work on - but once I have a fair idea, I just let the creative process flow and grow freely. Could you tell me about your other works? There’s some commissioned work that I do for editorials and publications, which is again conceptual kind of stuff. Not much of that is on the website. Then there’s the work that comes out of experimenting with different mediums, topics, techniques, and depending on availability of materials I like to dabble and learn more about alternative photographic processes. A lot of this work ranges from people to landscapes to still life. What are the most helpful tools/ applications you have found in creating these images? Technically, everything in my gear bag, imaging software, film have all been great companions through these journeys. After my workshop with
John Paul I opened up completely to the digital darkroom and the fantastic world of Adobe Photoshop, which is now an indispensable part of my creative process. What is your take on photography purists, who believe that pictures shot are best left untouched? The closest I get to “untouched” is when I use my little $25 cardboard pinhole camera. One can argue that adding a lens is messing with the angle, light, depth of field, etc. not to mention using various chemicals, types of film, lighting, etc. So why is that only digitally altered images are “heavily touched” and not the chemically altered ones? I find that discrimination quite baseless. We’ve seen this story play itself in a predictable fashion every time there is a new medium or new tools. When the digital cameras came in the “purists” swore that this is not the real thing. And then, evolution took over. At the end of the day any
creation is altered one way or the other. Thank god for that! Why else would somebody’s creation be special or unique? We shouldn’t feel limited or intimidated by our tools and mediums. We need to be able to open up to them and use them to express ourselves in a way that works best for each of us. Is there any shoot you are currently working on? There are some interesting commissions in the pipeline - a coffee table book on Goa for an international publishing house and a commission to create imagery for private spaces. I’m also working on having a show around my timeless solitude series and am collaborating with a writer friend to create an art book around the same theme. Then, there’s a close-to-my-heart ongoing book project about the Nilgiris and a fresh body of work (yet to be titled) that’ll involve film and the Holga 120mm plastic camera.
-By Gautam Kagalwala
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