The young men came to the photowallah every year during Eid, adorned in their festival finest, reveling in their little sartorial vanities as they asked him to take a photograph. The photowallah agreed, of course and pointed the young men, all of whom he was acquainted with, to a small bench. They positioned themselves upright in a row, the bhai demeanour replaced by a sudden bout of nervousness. "I couldn't get them to relax," said Waswo X Waso, who refers to himself in his writing as the "photowallah", spelled half in English, half in Hindi. At that moment, a news bulletin burst forth through the radio - "The US had just bombed Iraq or something along those lines," he recalled. The news grabbed the attention of his models, who forgot themselves for a moment, leaning in towards each in animated conversation. "I took my photograph in that moment." The photograph, titled New News in the Chai Shop, assumes pride of place at Tasveer’s Photowallah, an exhibition of artworks by Waswo X. Wasxo and Rajesh Soni. The exhibition is accompanied by a Tasveer publication of the same name, featuring photographs from Waswo’s collections.
Waswo X Waswo has called India his home for the last 16 years, Rajasthan for nearly 10. And through the years, as he trudged from place to place with his trusty lens, criticism followed, in tidal waves. "I have been accused of being an Orientalist, of glorifying the exotic," said Waswo, who is in town for show’s opening. He writes of the ‘Anaemic Academic’ his nemesis, who was “as always, carrying the dreaded Book of Said.” An argument ensued, fraught with lofty implications of hegemony and bigotry as the photowallah attempted, one eye cast longingly over his shoulder at his subject and the fast-fading light, to defend himself against accusations of paying his subjects and making a mockery of poverty. And yes, the photowallah lost his opportunity that day!
Things continued in this vein and reached a head when Waswo, tired of being called an Orientalist in a land he considered home, organised Confessions of an Evil Orientalist, a show in Delhi. “I even had a list of things I have done, that make me an Evil Orientalist,” he said, his largely grave countenance giving way to a smile.
“This happens all the time. It goes back to 2003; I have been accused of glorifying India and been told that I will never understand a culture from which I am so far removed.” Now this could very well be true, for the attitude is rampant, but first, one must attempt to understand the world Waswo X. Waswo inhabits. And it is a world, ladies and gentlemen, where elephants get in his way as he rides through Udaipur on the back of his assistant’s scooter, where The-Man-Who-Sells-Hara-Dhania under the Gai Pole bridge is in truth rather wealthy, but comes to the bridge each morning nevertheless because “he is still proud to be a farmer. It’s what makes him happy.”
No description of Photowallah is complete without the remarkable story of Rajesh Soni. He grew up in Udaipur, inundated by stories of his illustrious grandfather. “That made me want to do art too,” said Soni, who spent his years in school huddled over the last bench, drawing for all he was worth. “Rajesh and I met at my show in Udaipur in 2007,” said Waswo. “They were black and white photographs – he walked up to me and said, ‘Saab, I can paint these’.” Soni’s grandfather worked for the Mewar royal family, painting on black-and-white portraits before the advent of colour photography. Needless to say, technology wiped out the art form and Soni is the last in his family to carry it forth.
Oil on silver gelatin has given way to water colour on digital prints - "I use a mix of paint and water in the ratio of 1:9 and paint in layers," said Soni, who is one of the last painters of his kind in the country. Still, Waswo, who "still makes a claim in favour of art for art's sake, shies away from the idea of having revived an ancient tradition. "I'm a pictorialist with a love for vintage photographs," he remarks. "I'm not documenting, my work is not ethnographic." Their paths crossed in 2007, at Waswo's show of black and white photographs in Udaipur. "Rajesh walked up to me and said, 'saab, I can paint on these,” marking the start of a ten-year-old association that’s still going strong.
The photographs are staged – Waswo likes to plan things down to the last detail. For instance,a young cobbler sits beneath a tarpaulin sheet, apparently pausing in his trade to grace the camera with a glance. “That's how his workspace looks, but I constructed it somewhere else and had him pose.The idea is not to capture reality but to recreate it. And I choose my subjects with care. I want a twinkle in the eye, perhaps or anything that indicates the presence of emotion.” he said. “All I want to do is make a beautiful photograph.”
What: Photowallah
When: April 27 to May 27
Where: Tasveer, 26/1 SuaHouse, Kasturba Road
