1. What is your earliest memory of how or what attracted you to photography?
I can trace my earliest memory of photography to the time I was 6 or 7 years old, when I used to take a bus to visit my grandfather’s village. Next to the bus stop was an old photo studio. I remember looking into the glass window to see all the images that were in the display – images of marriage functions, local festivals, and my neighbors dressed in their best. I used to dream of having my photo taken and having it displayed, too. I would fantasize about how I would pose and which outfit I would like to wear. Since then I have always been attracted to old photo studios and still visit them whenever the opportunity arises. I have always been fascinated with the roles people choose to play in front of a camera, and how aware everybody is of the image they want to portray.
2. How did you inform yourself about the photographic medium – the techniques, the language and the aesthetics of it?
I have always been interested in arts and culture. From my childhood, I have enjoyed trying different forms of expression – from writing to singing and dancing. Once I relocated to Bangalore, I had the opportunity to collaborate with the alternative art space 1Shanthiroad, a gallery studio. There I met many interesting visual artists, scholars, filmmakers, and photographers who influenced me. I was in charge of documenting the different projects happening in the studio and, as a result, I got hooked on photography. I realized that photography was the form of expression that allowed me to pursue my artistic interests.
3. Do you think it is important to receive formal training in photography?
Yes indeed. Every artist needs some kind of training to be able to use different techniques and tools available to express their artistic ideas. Mastering the technical part of the trade requires a set of skills that needs to be acquired in one way or another. Anyhow, these sets of skills are not enough and should be subservient to the aesthetics of your work. I believe the biggest challenge for any artist is to find your own unique voice, and indeed having knowledge of the tools at your service and the work of other artists to help you carve your own path.
4. Who or what has inspired you to pursue photography and/or continues to do so?
I am interested in photography to document a certain reality, which usually goes unnoticed. I want my artistic practice to be an instrument to record and focus. The first project assigned to me was to photograph migrant laborers in the construction sites of Shanthi Nagar. Indeed, that was a turning point for me, and I decided to take my photography to the next level.
My subject is always the human being and his deep-rooted emotions. I like to capture the ordinary man in an extraordinary situation, and his conflict or dialogue with the surroundings. My intention is to create a situation in a public space for a visual debate. I want to draw attention to realities that many times go unnoticed by society. There are many real heroes and achievers who are working hard to change the society we live in and to bring more justice to our immediate surroundings. They act on a small scale, yet they bring a real and positive change. These people are the focus of my work and to bring them to bigger audiences is my main target.
Being an artist is a very personal experience and believing in yourself and finding your own voice is a complex and painful journey. Once you decide to take your work forward, everything will fall into place, and, of course, all your life experiences and skills will help you to deal with the subject.
5. Is there a book, exhibition or body of work that has really impressed you and maybe influenced your work / life?
There are a large number of works, artists, photographers, writers, and academicians who have influenced me and continue to do so.
However, there are two photographers in particular, whom I feel very close to, in terms of my aesthetics and subjects – Seydou Keita and Malick Sidibe, who are both from Mali, West Africa. They do portraiture that combines formulas of Western portrait photography with local quirky aesthetics to create images that are souvenirs of special moments and also symbols of wealth and the sitters’ status in the community. Their works are a chronicle of studio photography in West Africa before and after the decolonization process from France in 1960.
6. What draws / drew you to the subject matter you are pursuing in your current work?
As a photographer, as a policeman, and as a migrant myself, I seek intimacy through the lens of my camera. I focus on the lives of the people living on the fringes of society. Arriving at this point is an ongoing process for me – my experiences as a farmer, a police constable, and an artist myself have helped me to build a certain mindset and focus on my practice. Negotiating all these different aspects of my life has allowed me to construct my personal narrative that is seen in my work.
The moment of finally taking a photograph is the last step of a usually long journey taken by me along with my subjects. We have dedicated time to understanding each other and to feeling comfortable in a situation; therefore, the final moment of shooting comes naturally when my subjects feel at ease. I try as much as possible to become invisible and nonintrusive, so that I can capture the real essence of the subject.
Building a project starts in multiple ways. My project Being Gandhi follows the life of Bagadehalli Basavaraj, a rural teacher who for the last 30 years dresses as a Gandhi statue to advocate for Gandhism. The project started after I had encountered him on several occasions during my police duty. Over time we built a friendship and he shared with me his struggles.
I have been working on my project Street as Studio for many years already. In it, I reflect on the idea of a migrant’s relationship with the city. This comes from my childhood fascination in studio photography, and from my own personal understanding of being a migrant, and the struggles faced in a city.
For Handmaidens of the Divine, I spent a few years studying historical records and researching several sources on the continuing prevalence of the Devadasi System and capturing these vanishing art forms.
There are many different ways in which I am drawn to a particular subject, however, the one commonality is that all the subjects have to string a chord in my heart.
7. Do your projects typically run in parallel, or do you focus on one project at a time?
I work on several projects at the same time and, since the different bodies of work usually take years to materialize, they run parallel. A lot of time and effort goes into research, planning, traveling, locating the people, logistics, funding, and plenty of other things that have to be sorted out before I can start actually making the photograph. There are no breaks, as such. I work in a kind of organized chaos, in which planning is important but it requires a high degree of flexibility. When time permits, I like to travel and attend exhibitions in India and abroad. I take the opportunity also to attend commitments in other countries and plan my exhibitions accordingly as well.
8. How does your experience of being a cop inform your practice?
As a policeman I have developed a very sharp eye, always attentive to the world around, looking for unusual things that can be problematic in society. However, most of all, I want to be a ‘witness’ – being in touch with people, in any aspect of life, and be empathic to the everyday struggles of the common man.
9. Are you able to make a living through your photographic practice?
I am very fortunate that I can dedicate myself full time to my passion for photography and art. Being an artist in India is not a lucrative activity, and every artist faces lots of struggles. It is only after more than a decade of practice, that my work is being widely exhibited in India and abroad. It has finally created a significant audience and value for my photography, performance and visual arts projects. Not only do I multitask and work on several projects at the same time, but I also live a humble and simple life. A while ago, I decided to move back to my village near Bangalore to lead a more healthy, simpler, and more meaningful life.
10. You are a well-known artist and have exhibited in several international shows – your works having been acquired by various collectors. Do you still work as a police officer?
I quit being a cop two years ago and decided to dedicate myself completely to my photographic practice. The number of projects I am working on and my various commitments made it impossible for me to continue working as a cop, even though it is a job that has always given me a lot of joy. The possibility that I can have a direct positive impact on peoples’ lives gives me huge satisfaction. I have a commitment to serving society, not only with my works but to work in ways in which my ideas can be translated into actions that help trigger changes in society.
11. How do you measure success or that a body of work is going well?
The measure of success is so subjective, that it is difficult to reach a consensus. I understand success at different levels. For me, the most important success is that of personal fulfillment that my works bring to me. My projects take years to materialize. Many times I have to make important decisions and am forced to reflect on my own work and its various directions. During this process, the sense of ownership keeps growing, and when a project is ready for exhibition, I always feel very proud and want to share my work with as many people as possible. As you mature as an artist, you are more and more certain about the decisions you make. I believe that a good and meaningful art project will eventually find its own audience, be it in an art gallery, in the form of a book, or in a show on the street.
12. Do you ever find yourself creatively ‘stuck?’ Is there something that is particularly helpful to you in overcoming this?
I have so many ideas always coming to me that I feel that a day doesn’t have enough hours for me. I wish I had more time to work on the many interesting projects that I have in mind and worry they might just get shelved because of a shortage of time. I am more and more interested in ‘performance’ and in combining photography and performance to socially relevant issues. During all my projects I, at some point or another, reach a stage when I am not sure which direction I should take. However, what has always worked for me is multitasking. I work on one thing, let the other rest and come back to it when I am ready, and sometimes with a different and a better eye. Also, in order to listen with more clarity to your own voice, it’s very important to get rid of all the noise around us in this modern world. Simplifying my life has helped me a lot in arriving at more clarity. Following a healthy and disciplined life, away from the city and closer to nature has worked wonders for me and my work.
13. How much effort do you put into getting your work shown? Is this important to you? Does showing your work feed your creative process, or does it distract you from it?
Even though I don’t work with an audience in mind, I do love to present my projects to as many people as possible and get recognized. At the beginning of my career, I was putting a lot of effort into giving my work visibility and getting it exhibited. These days, luckily, the opportunities to show my work come more organically.
I like exhibiting my work and interacting with people at my shows, and responding to their questions. I like the opportunity to explain what happened behind getting a photograph and also interacting with my collectors. It is important to understand the commercial aspect of art and I am happy to dedicate my time to understanding that part.
14. Do you feel that there are adequate opportunities and avenues to share / show your work in your home country, or do you always look for such opportunities abroad?
There are opportunities in India and abroad, as well. However, it requires dedication to reach out to the right one for your work. Obviously, I would like to have more opportunities to show my work, yet I focus on making the most of the possibilities that come my way.
15. Do you think there is a universal language that photography uses? Do you think that South Asian photographers are finding that they are judged by western criteria and standards?
Visual Language is universal, in the sense that it is common for everybody, yet the way things are seen is unique to every individual and her/his own circumstances, be it education, cultural context, gender, political views etc. I feel audiences of different backgrounds respond to my work in quite a similar way; their way may not be the way I was thinking, but I feel my work strikes some emotional chord in them regardless of where they came from. Nonetheless, I feel we all are immersed in cultural globalization, which is asymmetric – a westernization of non-western cultures. However, as everybody gets more used to other ways of seeing, they are more prepared to accept a greater degree of diversity.
16. With your years of experience, of the lessons you have learned, what is the one thing you wish someone had told you when you were starting out?
My artistic career started in a very unusual way. I was much older than the average young artist, I didn’t come out of any famous art school and I didn’t have any family background to support me. However, I was quite eager to get my work recognized and exhibited and was very concerned about the critics and what they would say about my work. Luckily, a senior artist advised me that I should be the fiercest critic of my own work; the only thing that really matters is that I should meet my own standards and be satisfied with my work – this should be the measure of my success. I took his advice.
17. How will an interested collector go about buying your work?
They can get in touch with me directly at: copshiva@gmail.com
18. If you didn’t do photography, what other careers might you have pursued?
I have always been interested in the arts in general and would have loved to pursue my interest in acting and singing. I am able to fulfill that interest by incorporating the performative arts into my practice.
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Copyright © Cop Shiva
20 November
