Siva Sankaranarayanan
“Art is an expression of the soul…”
A common thread across all forms of art throughout history has been that art is not simply an expression of the person or the self but is an expression of what is deep-within, the soul. Atma (Sanskrit for Soul) Photography is my attempt at expressing my soul in a form that can be absorbed by the senses and in turn appeals to your soul…
My path into the world of photography started at what is traditionally thought of as the diametric opposite end – engineering. Even through my rigorous, disciplined and sometimes over-structured engineering training, my mind kept wandering into and seeking areas where art plays an important role – in design, synthesis, construction and composition. I always had the ability to relate to and appreciate music and other art forms but I attributed the appeal to my ability to analyze and deconstruct. I thought that being emotionally moved by something that is abstract was a “natural” response. And then I picked up my very first camera…
The notion of drawing a bounding box around my field of vision forced me to ask the question – “What am I seeing here?” The analyst and engineer in me started to enjoy this aspect but more often than not I found myself having to explain or detail a story around a picture. As I kept taking more photographs I found myself being drawn away from “What am I seeing here?” to “What am I seeing here?”. I was really asking “What is its intrinsic meaning?” – the meaning that appeals directly to us - that which emotionally moves us – that which I thought evoked a “natural” response in us.
So I embarked on a journey of discovery and self-education - of finding and capturing the intrinsic meaning, the Atma. As I went through this journey, I was drawn to many themes –
- how travel enhances our outlook and appreciation of places and people,
- how a child’s face and a newborn’s inquisitive eyes convey innocence and beauty,
- how light, shadow, and color shape our perception,
- how fleeting emotions can form a basis for a life-time of memory...
My camera became the vehicle for getting my mind focused and seeing the answer to these questions. This journey of self education and discovery is life-long and through my photos I want to show you some interesting facets of this journey… |
