‘I want to break free’

In Hari Krishnan G’s photo exhibition, ‘Secret Garden’, he focuses on the desire of women to fulfill their dreams and hopes

Pics: Jayanai A and Hari Krishnan G; a still  

By Shevlin Sebastian 

A few years ago, magazine photographer Hari Krishnan G went to the Pain and Palliative Care Centre in Thrissur to take photos of the founder Sheeba Ameer. Soon, he got talking to her and realised that Sheeba herself had gone through a tragedy. Her daughter Niloufa, who was 28, died on August 27, 2013, after a 16-year-battle with acute myeloid leukaemia. And Sheeba remembered that near the end, Niloufa said, 'Amma, will I survive or die? Please save me. I want to live'. 

“When Sheeba was telling me all this, I was thinking, ‘How emotionally strong and courageous women are’,” says Hari. 

Later, he interacted with many women during photo shoots. Another woman he found unforgettable is designer Uma Haimavati Prajapati who lives in Pondicherry. “Uma, who is from Delhi, told me that for many years she had lived for her husband and children,” says Hari. “But when her children grew up, got married and moved away, she felt it was time to live for herself. I thought a lot about what she said. We men fulfill our dreams easily: having a career, buying a plot of land, building a house, and purchasing a car. But a woman does not have the same freedom, especially when she gets married. A lot of her dreams and desires are set aside because of the needs of her husband, children and in-laws. I feel every woman should have freedom. And the family should encourage her to grow and develop as a person.”  

So, it was no surprise that for his first solo exhibition, ‘Emotional Hardcore’ in October 2015, the focus was on woman, but with a difference: they were all dark-skinned. “I wanted to show how beautiful they are, while at the same time challenge the notion that only fair people can be stunning,” says Hari. 

In his second exhibition, in May 2016, he focused on transgenders, while the third, in March 2018, called ‘Alien’, portrayed women in solitude. Now, his fourth, called ‘Secret Garden’, at the Durbar Hall, Kochi, is again focused on women and their desire for freedom. 

It shows a young woman wearing a long white gown, almost like a wedding dress, in different moods. In one she holds a crown which is perched on her head, in another she bends her back and looks upwards, with eyes closed but with roses in her hand, urging the mood of freedom to flow into her. 

In another, she wears a wedding veil with red roses and green leaves pinned on it, but she is waist-deep in a stream. There is an image where she looks directly into the camera holding a green lovebird in her hand. And there is one of her floating face up in a stream, eyes closed, with a look of tranquillity on her face. The images, 11 of them, at 6’ x 4’ were shot, with a Canon 6D, inside a forest in Kollam district. Hari has added a soundtrack of birds twittering and it adds to the feeling that we are watching scenes from a forest. 

The model is Jayani A, who is doing her PhD in Special Education in the School of Behavioural Sciences at MG University, Kottayam. Hari had seen her photos on Instagram and liked her style and poise. Through a mutual friend, he approached her. And she was agreeable because she had seen Hari’s photos earlier. “Images from his earlier exhibitions had gone viral,” she says. 

The shoot lasted for a few hours. But months later, Jayani is still excited. “I never felt more liberated as I was during the shoot,” she says. “Especially when I was lying face-up in the water. At one moment I felt I was floating in space.”  

Later, Hari got a shock when a friend pointed out that it was similar to British artist Sir John Everett Millais’ iconic work ‘Ophelia’ (the character from William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet). “I had not been aware of the artist’s image,” says Hari. “I was struck by how similar both are.”   

What is amazing about the photos is that they look like a mix of an actual photo as well as a painting, with diffuseness and splotches at certain places. But Hari says that these are photos and not a hybrid. “I did not use photoshop to improve or change the images,” says Hari, who graduated in Applied Art from Raja Ravi Varma College of Applied Arts, Mavelikara. But what he did differently was to use light in a new way. Apart from natural light, he used mirrors as well as filters. 

The exhibition will be an inspirational one for women visitors, as they make slow but confident steps to develop their personalities and talents. 

(The New Indian Express, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode)