Poetry in the stillness of space

There is a brooding intensity to Parul Sharma’s black and white photography, “Parulscape,” which debuted at Bikaner House late July. The photography exhibition of forty odd pictures was sponsored by Sotheby International Realty and curated by Ad Guru and ideator Swapan Seth. The exhibition is now on display at The Lodhi.

A common bond linking all her photographs is the extraordinary urban geometry of angles and rectangles, of circles within concentric whirls, and of triangles caught between quadrangles. Some photographs taken at the Budh Circuit in Noida emanate a feral loneliness, as if all the steel clap boards and barriers are straining at a circuited leash, ready to ricochet off the stands.

One photo of an ethereal chapel in Kyoto best exemplifies her zen lens; It is titled “Satori” – sudden enlightenment – despair, desolation, and divination. Another photograph taken at the Social Bar in Hauz Khas, beams interstellar rays of light highlighting the fuzzy silhouette of déjà vu drinkers peering at an enlightenment somewhere out there.

“I sought poetry in the stillness of spaces. I am fascinated with the unique geometry that these buildings have. Different shapes of objects enthuse me to photograph and weave a story around my work,” says Parul Sharma, who previously was the India spokeswoman for Star India before venturing to pur- sue her passion for photography. Parulscape’s messages in all her photographs suggest a zebra moral code. There is black, there is white and there is the grey that we so often inescapably retreat to waiting to escape from, evolve into, and finally evoke.