Debmalya Choudhuri’s series Postcards from Rishikesh is permeated by the abundant waters of the sacred river Ganges. Rishikesh becomes for the Indian photographer a metaphor of the human quest for the self. His series is the visual representation of a mystical moment.
Postcards from Rishikesh
is not a souvenir of a journey. It is a crucial part of it. People go to Rishikesh, a holy Indian pilgrimage site, to look for their inner self, and Choudhuri, 24, photographs for the same reason. “It is only through the visual medium that I feel free to engage in dialogue with my reflections”, the Indian photographer tells us. At the foothills of the Himalayas, his photographic journey is an intimate one.
The minimalist aesthetics of the pictures is a tribute to the simplicity of life. The omnipresence of nature, the real protagonist of the series, is a clear reproach to human ego. “How can we as humans, who are so trivial when compared with the universe, be so full of ourselves?” asks the photographer. Divided into three chapters—“The Journey”, “Life is Here” and “The Dance of Shiva”—for the photographer this work is a visual story about rediscovering the meaning of life. Set “in a place far away from the morass and the chaos of a city”, his series is a reminder of the beauty of the life that exists around man.
Images from “Postcards from Rishikesh” © Debmalya Choudhuri
