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Beyond a pretty picture
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Photographer Mahesh Nair tells RANA SIDDIQUI that he plays with light
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Awesome One of Mahesh Nair’s pictures from “…let there be light”
No place is boring,” said Robert Adams, a well known photographer. These words sound true when one sees Mahesh Nair’s breathtaking photographs, especially of places that one may have seen many times. But when they have been shot from Nair
’s Canon 5D and developed from US-3 transparencies, they assume a different character altogether. What makes this marketing professional-turned-photographer’s works unique is the interplay of light and shade in them. Most of them have a three-dimensional effect and they seem to transport one to the location itself. So, if in one picture you find yourself standing next to a cloud, in the next your fingers may fiddle with a drop of water on that fresh green leaf or yellow flower. You may feel trapped in a spider’s web in one, while gusty winds threaten to blow you away in another.
Double attraction
That his pictures attract both art lovers and investors can be gauged by the fact that he could sell 27 photographs in his solo show held recently in New Delhi. A coffee-table book of 185 pages called “…let there be light” on his magnificent pictures of Leh, Ladakh, Kashmir, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Assam, Rajasthan, Malaysia, Ireland, Borneo and Scotland was launched simultaneously by Roli Books.
Nair reveals the secret, “I underexpose most of my pictures. I play with only light. I don’t add colour to them. I never choose a particular time to shoot. But the fact is places like Zanskar and Padum have ethereal beauty. One doesn’t need to be a photographer to shoot them.”
Nair’s actual passion is wildlife photography but he has made a name in landscapes. “It is because wildlife photography has no market except when WWF or magazines buy them.”
Even general photography, he admits, has less takers. “Photographers don’t make grades because they need to go beyond shooting just a pretty picture. My pictures are appreciated because the buyers have understood that there is a difference between creative photography and documenting photography. Photographs for many are a substitute for painting that they can’t afford. Today Raghu Rai is selling one picture for Rs.two to three lakhs, while it used to be 25000 three years ago. Same goes for the known photographers like Amit Pasricha and Dayanita. I think awareness has started but there is still a need to promote photography as an art form. There are many talented photographers who still haven’t got their due. I have an edge over many because of my marketing background.”
And today Nair sells his single edition picture for Rs.60000 and those with three to eight prints for 15000. And his picture sizes are generally huge (36x20 inches to 54x36 inches).
His other upcoming projects include documenting high altitude places such as Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim etc., for WWF, and shooting tough terrains where the Army jawans work.
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