Won for the Road

This is not the first time when Gandhi’s steps have been retraced. Last year,a group of artists,piloted by curator Johnny ML,took the same route for their project titled ‘Freedom to March’. Unlike Goa CAP,the works were not created on-site,as artists worked on their canvases back home and exhibited them in Delhi in November. The response was encouraging. Art connoisseurs have been familiar with artists roving for inspiration. In October 2010,artist Tushar Joag rode his motorbike along the dam project sites of India,Nepal,Tibet,till China,taking the Himalayan roadways. The resulting artwork,that was displayed at Chemould Prescott gallery,Mumbai,dwelt on the idea of “dams being the ‘temples’ of a resurgent India”. “There were times when my bike broke down and I had a few dangerous experiences,but it was amazing how helpful people were to me. More than the photographs,it was the human connection that enriched me,” recalls the Mumbai-based artist who is planning to feature some of the works in a solo exhibition in Delhi in September.

Enamoured by road trips,Chennai-based filmmaker Anushka Meenakshi and stage actor Iswar Srikumar decided to use their house deposit money to make a road film by travelling across India. “A trip like this will change the way we think and see things,so we don’t want to give the film a concrete structure or direction right at the beginning,” says Meenakshi,who is a trained broadcast journalist. Srikumar adds,“We want to search for performing artists and craftsmen wherever we go and see their approach to their work. We also love food,even though we are vegetarian. The food we eat will be featured in the film.” The duo is just back from Spiti,where they handed over the camera to the people they met,asking them to shoot whatever was relevant to them . “Our most dramatic encounter was with Tulkuji,a musician we met in Lahri village in Spiti. He is a real people magnet and a talented musician who wanders the hills,giving free performances and jamming with local musicians,” says Srikumar.

The success of such initiatives has also led to a more corporate approach,where enthusiastic photographers are taken on a package tour. Photography on the Move organises walks,workshops and studio techniques,apart from tours.

They have planned a trip to Nagaland in December,and the group’s popularity can be gauged from the fact that it has 4,500 members on Facebook.

The benefit though is not restricted to those on the driving seat. “The idea is to empower and educate the local youth while enriching ourselves,” says Bhadoriya. When his group was on the road,they selected four young volunteers from the villages that they were passing through and taught them basic photography skills. “We wanted to give them an opportunity to visually represent their village and culture through the affordable medium of pinhole cameras. Most of the time,children kept grabbing the camera and wanted to have fun,” smiles Dias. Like the other photographers,he complained of blistered feet,but the photographs made the effort worthwhile.