This is my documentation of the city, the time frame I lived there, my existence and personal experience with the city, and most importantly the interactions with the people of NYC, the warmth and intimacy, the sense of socioeconomic culture and arrangements, and overall Manhattan madness.
Contextual Background
I lived in New York City from July, 2011 to February, 2015 for my IT (Information Technology) services job. During my tenure in New York City, I photographed cityscapes at golden hour, people, their activities, and all the objects that intrigued me.
In the beginning of 2012, I have started photography passionately. It was a very early phase of learning at that point of time, and I was unacquainted with many photographic techniques, compositions and styles. I didn’t see many master photographers’ work until 2014, was unfamiliar with the works of legendary American photographers even on New York City, and completely unaware of photographic history. Being a self-learner and the way I am, photography happened to me very slowly. While photographing, I was only focused on what fascinated me, what I felt by heart, and I worked what come direct from my own instinct, I believed in that.
New York City has a nice blend of modern skyscrapers and medieval architectures. People of New York, I believe, are very progressive than anywhere else in the world. I chose to go closer, be one of them, interacted with them, and spend little more time than usual while photographing them, at times I kept me away and witnessed from a distance, tried to relate with their emotional and psychological perspective, which were my primary curiosity as I am from a different cultural background. I was very comfortable photographing people in New York City and strangely they have accepted me too for some reason, mostly because it is New York City and people are enlightened in art, media, blogging, and conversant with photographic projects.
Now I feel blessed that I didn’t introduce unnecessary elements and the traces of influence from master photographers’ work in my own photographs. I personally love the simplicity, directness, intimacy and I tried captured the same with all my constraints. Till now I do strategize the same way.
About Sudarshan Mondal
Sudarshan Mondal is passionate about image making and its creative process. His selection of subjects and approach varies based on the work and project theme he is up to and in this pursuit he works on people on streets, landscapes, nature, travel, also with abstract, equally both in color and black & white, in his personalized form. He is now more focused on short and long term non-journalistic project works, mostly personal in nature. Through his photographic endeavor, he tries to establish a sense of time, search for social theories, look outside world in a different perspective, and sometimes, very personal in nature reflecting his own state of mind.
From his early days of learning basics camera technicalities, color theories and management, processing raw files in Photoshop or Lightroom, to a trip photographing fashion in Miami, tracing fall colors in New Hampshire, driving in the mountain roads of Smoky or Yellowstone, shooting bikini babes in Puerto Rico or streets in New York City, his quest for new experience compelled him to continually evolve his thought process, while reminding him the importance of carrying a camera with humor, compassion and curiosity.
He was born and grew up in a village of West Bengal, and then he graduated in electrical engineering, and now works as a senior business analyst in a multinational software firm. And at the same time, he is fortunate enough to spend a good extent of time on his personal photo projects, traveling, and collaborating with fellow photographers. He has been privileged to work and live in cities like Kolkata, London, Dallas, and New York City, and acquainted with many people of different cultures and nationalities. He currently lives in Kolkata with family.
You can find Sudarshan Mondal on the web:
Copyrights:
All the pictures in this post are copyrighted Sudarshan Mondal. Their reproduction, even in part, is forbidden without the explicit approval of the rightful owners.
