[Reader-list] Photographs and Thoughts from Bombay's Cinema Halls/ 6th Post

[Zubin Pastakia]

Hello,

This is my sixth post to the Reader-List related to my fellowship
project "A Photographic Study of Bombay's Cinema Halls as a Cultural
Experience of Space."

I am often confronted with the choice of making a picture with a
figure in the frame - or - of leaving the image without any (physical)
human presence. Usually, I opt for shooting without the person in the
frame as I am primarily interested in looking at the built environment
and trying to understand how we relate to its architectures and how
they reflect us. Also, I find it more interesting to create images
that hint at the presence of people. A person in the frame tends to
take over and become the "subject" of the picture, and then the
picture tends to become primarily about that person.

Photographing for me is primarily an analytical activity. I tend to
work in an extremely measured, conscious manner with a tripod,
shooting less and choosing more. I have certain questions in my head,
and certain answers that I am trying to provide visually. It becomes
impossible to shoot "decisive moments" with this process. And, as time
has gone on, I have become completely uninterested in these "decisive
moments." John Berger wrote about this in his essay on photographer
Paul Strand where he compares his style to that of the Frenchman
Cartier-Bresson:

"One could say that it was the antithesis to Henri-Cartier Bresson's.
The photographic moment for Cartier-Bresson is an instant, a fraction
of a second, and he stalks that instant as though it were a wild
animal. The photographic moment for Strand is a biographical of
historic moment, whose duration is ideally measured not by seconds but
by its relation to a lifetime. Strand does not pursue an instant, but
encourages a moment to arise as one might encourage a story be told."

I have recently finished photographing in Capitol cinema, which shut
down shortly after. Vishwas Kulkarni has recently written two articles
in the Mumbai Mirror on the sudden closure of the cinema hall and on
one of the last films that played there. I have pasted the links
below:

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article&sectid=2&contentid=2007092820070928022316375c3a5d97a&pageno=1

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article&sectid=47&contentid=2007072902303200974c49e9&pageno=1

I have also recently been photographing Bharat Mata cinema, which is
the only cinema hall in the city that plays only Marathi-language
films.

As usual, all feedback and comments are most welcome.

Please take a moment to view the pictures:

http://peripheralvision.blogspot.com

Best,

Zubin


-- 
Zubin B. Pastakia

Photographer

e:   zubinpastakia at gmail.com
w:  http://peripheralvision.blogspot.com
t:    [91] 9833739998