Abul Kalam Azad / photographer

vijayanuppapa / photography © Abul Kalam Azad / 12''x10'' pigment print 1991

A Still Journey Through Time

O.V.Vijayan

( Today, I fondly remember the moments shared with Vijayan... and as a tribute to him, I am now sharing some portraits of him along with a note written by Vijayan for my first show 'Frontier people' at Kerala Kaladeepam, 1990. Vijayan has not even seen these images )

The camera cannot lie, there is something final about the lens. But there is also a tiny space between finality and trick-photography, which is the area of narration. Azad's photography concerns this space, where he tries out, not consciously perhaps, the deconstruction of bland exposures into humanist communication. This is a welcome deviation from the photographic manipulation of reality that happens so often in art photography.

The picture of the resting sex-worker, nothing dramatic, is an example. the pictorial space is dominated by a checkered floor on which the woman sleeps oblivious od her surroundings. There is no attempt to explore the erotic potential, even her face is hidden. Or, the picture of the Khazi teenager, a new initiate with her silent search for compassion.

Azad photograph with patience, he reaches the space of narrative, accomplishing pictures invariably close to the written word. This verbalatly in no way diminishes the pictorial curiosity and investigation.

1991, New Dehi