The story of Dilli

A series of photography workshops capture the essence of Delhi.

Mouth-watering stre-et food, magnificent monuments, colourful people, street fashion, the old and the new, the raw and the refined, the hot and the cold… If you are keen to partake of life on the streets of Delhi, this one is for you.

Art gallery The Fuschia Tree has recently started a series of themed workshops for amateur photographers, to culminate in an exhibition of the works. Signing up are a host of participants — from students, software engineers, and businessmen to homemakers, filmmakers and journalists. The project, Dilli 6, has been conceptualised as a series of six photography workshops endeavouring to capture the essence of Delhi.

 

The first workshop held some time ago was on the theme of “Chandni Chowk”, which, the organisers point out, is where the story of Delhi really begins. But it was the second, “Taste of Dilli”, led by photographer Sephi Bergerson, focussing on street food in the city, that turned out to be a tempting outing indeed.

Skirting the lanes of old Delhi, 10 participants found something for their cameras at every corner. Eleven-year-old Shreya Sahai captured the colours of spices in her work titled Spice Market, while 43-year-old filmmaker Prashant Sareen preferred to make the smoke, flames and the “wafting aroma” of sizzling kebabs being cooked on the streets his subject. Another 11-year-old, Vimanyu Devgan, whose interest lies in photographing landscapes and animals, suddenly began to find street food more attractive. His work titled, Ready for Tea?, has been shot at Ustad Chai Wala, a tea shop in Chandni Chowk. The subject of the picture is a helper at the tea stall. “It was wonderful to capture him getting the glasses ready for the next lot of tea- drinkers with a smile on his face,” says Devgan.

The third workshop in the series was “Kal, Aaj Aur Kal”, held under the guidance of fashion photographers Anil Chawla, Munish Khanna and Chandan Ahuja and stylists from the Mesmerizing Effects group. The aim here was to document fashion trends that have impacted the city since Independence. The trends were divided into three categories — retro, contemporary and futuristic. The retro component, as expected, drew heavily on Bollywood styles from the 1960s and 1970s —“looks” popularised by the likes of Sharmila Tagore, Rajesh Khanna and Rakhi. The original brief of this workshop was to capture fashion trends at iconic locations in Delhi. But with the heat proving to be a dampener, the classes finally happened in the comfortable environs of a studio. The participants, 12 in all, got a chance to handle professional equipment meant for studio photography perhaps for the first time in their lives. With models styled to perfection and props to lend character to the ambience, it turned out to be an instructive session. However, the theme is now set to be repeated outdoors, weather permitting.

“We try to get as many people as possible involved in every workshop. We want to see through the eyes of the amateur photographers, and it delivers stunning results. Even professional photographers who lead the groups say they learn from the new-comers,” says Shailin Smith, art advisor, The Fuschia Tree. After each workshop, the leader, with an advisory panel, selects the best shots. These are being exhibited in a 15-day exhibition at the gallery in East of Kailash and on its website. Each selected photograph is printed on archival paper, using cutting-edge Giclee technology, thereby converting an amateur work into a work of art.

Other workshops planned for the rest of the year are: Markets of Delhi, Iconic Structures and Coming to Delhi (photographing people who arrive at Delhi’s railway stations every day). To participate log on to http:// www.thefuschiatree .com/.