It was a regular workday for photojournalist Ritesh Uttamchandani sometime in 2004. He was walking around in Lalbaug which is home to idol makers in Mumbai. It was there that he spotted an unusual idol 바카라 a white idol of a goddess wrapped up in what once used to be a Congress party banner.
The idol had five hands, two pairs jutting out on either side of the torso and the fifth one on its stomach. That was the hand from the banner 바카라 the symbol of the Congress party. Amused, Uttamchandani clicked a picture, and very soon forgot about it for nearly five years, when he started noticing these political banners in the strangest of places, put to uncanniest of purposes, more often.
Now, it was almost as if he were looking for them 바카라 stretched out fragments of flex and vinyl superimposed with faces of politicians, big and small, in saffron, green red, white and more, that had served their political destiny of campaign banners, and were reborn as cover for a food cart, a mat for a vegetable vendor, a surface to sleep on for a homeless person or a waterproof roof over someone바카라s head.
Curated by Ranjit Hoskote, it is on until February 28. Having been a photojournalist for almost two decades, Uttamchandani has done it all in terms of what is considered the conventional form of photojournalism, particularly when it came to politics. He has photographed politicians in all their glory 바카라 while giving rousing speeches, during a campaign rally, awarding 바카라underprivileged바카라 children and other social work.
For 바카라A Lease of Life,바카라 however, he digresses from the traditional practice and redirects his lens as a medium to explore the relationship between people and their leaders. In these photographs, he doesn바카라t seem to be interested in chronicling the banners when they were installed, but what happened when they 바카라came down from the pedestal바카라. He says: 바카라When the banners come down, get dismembered and mutilated into shop covers etc바카라that is what really fascinates me. There바카라s a subtle hint of violence that is directed towards the people on the posters.바카라
A photograph in the show captures a bloodied political poster that has now been repurposed as a surface to clean, cut and sell fish. Another banner has found itself at the top of a transportation tempo providing cover and security to the material inside. The faces of the politicians on the banner line the edge of the vehicle.
Uttamchandani바카라s photographs look at how the theatre of politics plays out in the minds of people in the aftermath of the spectacle that is political events, be it the elections, the opening of a school or simply an inauguration of a small stretch of road. 바카라I also feel that these photographs illustrate the very push-pull exploitative, up and down relationship that people have with their representatives,바카라 he says.
The paradox comes across in an image from the show where a banner lines the internal facade of what looks like a dwelling in a slum 바카라 the faces of the politicians overseeing the lives of these people, quite literally.
Hoskote selected the 21 photographs from a collection of over 130 unique photographs clicked across Mumbai over a period of 13 years. During this time, he says, he never left his camera behind even for once, not even at a family wedding, or when he was out buying soap from a neighbourhood grocery shop.
바카라It used to be a point of embarrassment for my family that even if I would go to a cousin sister바카라s wedding, my camera would be there. I would always have my bag and a small lens because sometimes things happen and you don바카라t really have the luxury to go back,바카라 he says. He hopes to continue adding to the collection for another two years and eventually bring out a photo book.
