Photo Essay by: Saikat Samaddar
My sister is playing sitar in that corner room. She grew up into a young lady in the corridors, in the back yard of this house. My mom after returning from office is busy with her house hold engagements. At night she will wait for us to finish our dinner for she is the only one who would arrange the dining table after we are done. The monotonous Bengali television serials will be the only one to accompany her at those late hours. Amidst this busy schedule of a cyclic home – office – home she tends to over look the torn end of her saree. My papa, apparently seems to have little participation in the house, but he is the main driving force and a huge support always behind us. Our permanent guests are 2 camels; the mother with her foal curved out inimitably onto the broken loosely plastered ceiling of this shabby house. And when I talk about ceiling I remember those days during my summer vacations when I would be alone at house after my parents left for work. The daylight percolating through the narrow slits of the ventilator creating ghostly shadows on the walls of the closed room. This would send shiver running down my spine; and unlike my peers I would complain to my papa about such a long vacation that I failed to enjoy. From tomorrow all this activities will cease to exist….
December’12, Kolkata, India.
This project began as a photo essay of our family leaving the house which I inhabited since my senses developed as a child. This photographs are a collection of shot taken over a period of time, including when we left the house last December. For me, at the end of the event this series is not an essay but it remains just as a feeling of departure from a place called HOME and not a house.
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About the Photographer
I am a doctor by profession but with an intense passion for photography. I love viewing photographs of all various contemporary photographers. I have been inspired by works of Sally Mann. Coming to my style of photography, I use very less gears. a 50mm prime lens or a 18-55 kit lens, or a point and shoot digital camera, trying to concentrate on composition and concept, creating a body of work. I believe its an eye searching for an organised chaos in this disorganized world that is most important; and I am striving to develop one.
