A Story in Three Frames
Running a narrative in my suburban photo story
One of the best compliments I’ve received for my photography was from my professor in design school. It was for the frame you see above. It was the third photo in a 3-photo-story set called ‘About Today’.
He said the photograph looked like how you would see something with your own eyes and can capture it as is. To date, I cherish the words to my heart. His words made my photograph a poem.
For me, photography has always been about having control over a perspective; how I see people around me. It is an empowering feeling, to have my narrative running in frames. And since photography as a practice has always been about me for me, it was a different joy to learn how it resonated with others too.
Bus rides in my home city Mumbai, have woven stories, picking up mumbles, ear-aching quarrels, chirpy chatter and office rants, from one stop to the next. And somehow, each day, it would place me as a bystander in the stories of people around me.
Much as I find my bliss in being blurred in the background, I have days where I feel like the protagonist in light. About Today is MY story; how I see life happen around me. I hope it comes through to you in this story :) (Yes I’m guilty of using text-emoticons *facepalms*)
This photo story was a submission to a competition held on account of World Photography Day. The theme was ‘About Today’; A visual story captured in 3 photographs showing how I uniquely see the world around me.
We’ve never had any private means of transport in the family. No car, bike or even a scooter for the deteriorating suburban roads of the city. But we’ve also never really had to, thanks to the public transport connectivity. It is not only widely connected to the outer suburbs or town, it is super affordable as well. From local trains, metros, and auto-rickshaws to buses, I’ve grown savvy and well-accustomed to using them over the years. I enjoy the bus rides the most, though.
I’m on a bus ride, sitting in front just behind the driver’s seat. Unpopular opinion, but it is what I think as one of the ‘better’ seats on the bus. It is generally considered uncomfortable because of the vibrations and the heat. But as a Mumbaikar, dreading the heat is something I’m already native to. So more legroom on the front bench seat trumps the heat. It’s also a higher bench seat.
I like that I get to see the tops of cars and auto-rickshaws that are stuck with us in traffic. Not the bikers so much; they find sly trails to cut the traffic, much to our envy. I sometimes get to wave at children in school vans. If they seem shy, maybe just return a smile. For a fleeting moment, I realise how these simple exchanges and things we see and feel, bead on to make up our days. And that its so simple sometimes — Today is just another day and I’m just another person on my way home.
