Home is where the inspiration is.

Announcing the winner of the giveaway posted early last month.  Canada based architect and entrepreneur, Liza Skaria's answer  bags her  this limited edition print signed in verso :

A detail of make shift , plastic and canvas tents that house pilgrims at Kumbh city, Allahabad.

On the subject of homes and what they mean to us,  a couple of conversations I have had with friends and readers recently brings me to today's  post..

In which what one surrounds oneself with finds organic and subconscious expression in what one does sometimes.

Its going to be a series of quick collages I posted to a secret Pinterest board recently.  One that a fellow blogger friend the inimitable Archana Srinivas of Rang Decor encouraged me to put together. Archana needs no introduction, but this much has to said, she is a major motivation for mine among a score of other blogs like ours . Read her lovely blog here.

That my  home is an expression of what drives me internally is something I  knew intuitively.  But to realise how much took this little exercise.. 

One morning for me, and an evening for Archana who currently building her nest in Minnesota, USA, many steaming cups of tea and a free wheeling chat about work inspiration and `style' prompted me to look into my work and  and inspirations.

With some thinking I juxtaposed work from the Photo+ series I launched last year against vignettes from my home and work, in collages and came to a realisation...

Like every book read, ever word written, every movie seen, every place traveled what you photograph, and what you curate as an environment around you has a say in who you are and what your inspirations will be. It matters what you say with your home..!

Have  shared the mood-boards I created for Archana with you via these hurriedly put together collages. Do leave me a word if this resonates with you at any level ( of agreement or disagreement both ) at all!

Vintage love.

Just a day away from showing Photo + at the AWC fair, Trident BKC, Mumbai.  The experience and response this far has been overwhelming to say the least.  The madness of putting together a gig has unleashed! With much effort I squeeze just one more post from the range..

Sharing with you a few images that use vintage photography for inspiration.  These images are reproductions of  old photographs I have collected  over the years.

The history of early studio photography and the portrayal of women therein is utterly fascinating. A detailed post on the subject would be pertinent. Promise to come back with one later..

Until then, here are a few vintage photo boxes and more from from Photo+ ..

Antique Teak Box

Vintage photo stool

The prince's wardrobe

Skirt, Jaipur 


Have uploaded most images from the collection on to my facebook page. Check it out here.

Look forward to seeing those who can make it at the AWC fair tomorrow!

Photo boxes

Letters to God,  Limited edition fine art print

These are much photographed times, and each one of us is a photographer. For many like me, taking images and sharing them is a fundamental way of consuming life. To the extent that I don't quite know what to make of the visible unless I  have framed it in a photograph !

In my mind I never stop composing pictures, reading light and calculating exposure values.

It is a problem! Gone are the days when Dad's Yashica would be pulled out of its bag for special occasions, holidays, birthdays and festivals...I have to put the camera away on important occasions lest I  forget to enjoy and  just be there rather than hyper record and lose the moment completely!

The most pleasurable part of taking the picture is actually seeing it in print! Never mind the digital revolution, nothing beats an actual picture that one can feel, better still process it with ones own hands!
Even when a dark room is no longer easily available, the thrill of receiving those `do not bend' envelopes from the printers that come bearing your work is truly indescribable.

One day early this year, I pulled something out of one such  sacrosanct envelope, and bent it! not just that, soaked, tore, plastered and  moulded the photograph ! Sacrilege? right?.. and  how I did suffer too! For this gorgeous textured fiber paper does not print cheap!  

Here are two actual photo boxes then, the first made as a composite of 21 images taken across traditional homes around Rajasthan and Uttarpradesh- The Haveli box. While the second is made with pictures  of random temple walls.

The Haveli box

Letters to God, table top box

Hand painted detail.

From a chair by the window

Makeshift workspace by the window

What is it  they say about life giving you lemons?  You make lemonade.. right? Cheesy cliches apart,  good lemonade is always worth striving for.

Although today's post has been in the writing for the past four months  its germ has been in mind for over two years. 

"Time is a created thing. 
To say 'I don't have time', is like saying 'I don't want to" 
~ Lao Tzu

Waiting for the right time often becomes a carefully cultivated scam  to avoid implementation. The mind adds to the difficulties real and imaginary,  and before one  knows even the best intentions suffocate slow mo. Only in my case, a few developments at home, not altogether positive forced me to confront this resistance. 

Early  his year construction delays at home and a mishap soon after we moved in had me home bound for an indefinite stretch. As if that was not enough, my digital camera with its dainty dust sensitive sensor had to be  packed away!   I simply had to find an escape from the sheer madness unleashing itself day and and day out. A way out of the noise dust and juggling between focusing on the house, the children and still getting some work done!

The house was in a disarray anyway.  Life was going to be like sitting on a three legged chair for the next six plus months if not more. Would it hurt  anymore if I added to the chaos?  Took up a corner and started to sand paint, colour glue and mess about?!  It is hard mucking about in a clean calm space. But one which is rumbling and shaking like a monster spewing dust belches ?!!

So  in one chaotic corner of the house -a single desk by a window:  Photo + took shape.  Tentatively and one mistake after the other at first,  I had to teach myself restoration of old furniture- trunks mostly.  Sand, prime, paint, detail and varnish.  A little by myself and mostly thanks to the constant hand holding and encouragement of dear friends...(they know who and they know how ;)

Some of you might recollect the project I undertook with the wall niches and old calendars a while back (here).  As an extension of  the niches,  other objects that have been subsequently embellished using paint, paper-mache, decoupage and moulding.

In process.

The  idea has to do with the power of  the authentic object. Calendars, posters, old books. Vintage photography, coins, old hand written letters, postcards endless material that invokes nostalgia and longing.. add to it my own photography which in the past ten years or so has become a map of my life across countries and cultures in a way. Is it possible to pick up an old object and reinvent it with older material?

In a somewhat finished form, the project involves restoring old furniture- trunks, cabinets, stools, platters, boxes and containers etc ( pretty much all I could lay my hands on) and lending them a fresh layer of interest and therefore a new life using layers of old material- collected, inherited and found.

Check out images of some of the handcrafted Photo + art works at  the fabulous Bhavna Bhatnagar's An Indian Summer. I am thankful and thrilled to have her feature my work.

With much trepidation I will launch the initial set of objects coupled with select fine art prints at a day long AWC event at the Trident  hotel BKC  on the 30th of November.

Would love to share stories  about a few  objects over the next few days.  For above all, each painstakingly handcrafted object in the series this far  has multiple stories to tell. Will keep updating my facebook page at Chandan Dubey Photo + simultaneously.

I promise to post continuously over the next four days. See you around 

Laxmi

Laxmi limited edition fine art print
@
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chandan-Dubey-Photography-/253623451376709

Wishing all dear readers a very very happy Diwali! 

I had just one more Diwali post to go, only s
ometimes, one needs to tune out the blog and the Internet, power off the camera and be in the moment ! The post shall be uploaded soon .. You have a great day of festivities and family.!