ELEMENTAL EYE

Photographer Aditya Arya’s Tattva is a jewel of a photo exhibition. It is part of the innovative Aravalli Utsav— a festival of exhibitions, talks and films designed to raise awareness of the mountains’ huge ecological significance. Showing at the experimental art gallery at the India Habitat Centre, it will be on until November 20.

Arya used chemical processes he has been involved in reviving for the past four years to create the show’s 40- odd prints— which include landscapes and delicate photograms of plants. ( A photogram is an image made without a camera by placing objects directly on photographic paper.) For each image, he has used a chemical element drawn from the Aravallis surround- ing the NCR: Salt from the Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan, vegetables from his garden in the foothills, resin extract from the acacia trees that grow on the ridges.

This tactile connect with the Aravallis permeates the photographs almost like a genetic code, giving it a layered subtext. The hand- printed images— often blurred and frayed at the edges because of the analog chemical processes— are arresting in this era of slick, perfectly corrected photographs. The imperfect images are like visual ruins— vestiges of an ideal replication— like the mountains themsel ves. Our engagement with them is charged with an emotive appeal— like a letter written in blood.