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Architecture in everything

OTHER-WORLDLY SILHOUETTES Seeing architecture in Nature too

An architect’s eye, an artist’s vision, and a scientist’s fascination with the natural world — architectural photographer Pallon Daruwala combines the three to create a fascinating, mind-bending series of works in ‘Vertical Horizon’, an exhibition on at Prakrit Art Gallery.

Each of the 36 pieces in the collection is technically just a black-and-white photograph of everyday, almost mundane, structures — Mumbai’s high-rises, a factory in Ahmedabad, a church in Goa, branches of a tree shorn of leaves, etc. But Daruwala’s eye for angles, combined with his sci-fi-like vision expressed through digital manipulation — 90-degree rotation and mirroring — creates entirely new, almost other-worldly silhouettes that make for intriguing works of art.

“Basically the idea came from a quote of Stephen Hawking’s: ‘What if the world is so strange that we could never hope to understand it, and science was wasting its time trying to do so?’,” says the Bangalore-based photographer, whose work has been published internationally in magazines such as Travel & Leisure and Time. “I began to wonder how strange the world could really be; What if the horizon had gone vertical during some cataclysmic event, but nothing else in the course of history had changed?”

Developing on this concept saw Daruwala shuttling among the worlds of science, sci-fi, and creativity in composing his images. However, none of final products is titled — a conscious choice by the photographer. “Titles would influence the viewers’ impressions, and I don’t want that,” says Daruwala. “I want to encourage an open-minded thought process, where the viewers come up with their own interpretations of the works.”

He certainly succeeds. Each fascinatingly mirrored and morphed piece works almost like an optical illusion, making you stop, ponder, and tilt your head this way and that to figure out what it is. Daruwala’s background as an architectural photographer is evident in the way his lens captures perspectives and shapes most of us would miss — whether of a flyover or a temple at Hampi or even just rushes swaying in the wind by a lake. “I see architecture in everything,” smiles Daruwala, who has been working in India since 1986 after doing a photography degree in the U.S. “There’s a certain sense of architecture even in Nature.”

This is the first conceptual show by the photographer, who has several other architectural photography shows to his credit. ‘Vertical Horizon’ travelled to Chennai after showing at Bangalore and Delhi, and will be departing to Hyderabad next. It’s on until November 7.

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