Bivas Bhattacharjee

Velocity of Darkness

"The madman is a clever man. For I cannot hold a secret. But he can. I try to see it in his eyes, but they reveal nothing. Till they do and I am shocked at the sight of the whirlpool that tumbles beyond." Velocity of Darkness is a project I have worked on for 2 years in the city of Kolkata capturing candid moments of vulnerability. It is the documentation of the hidden, or the unreal, when emotions have surpassed the mask of civility. The final project will be in the form of a book where an image is always accompanied by text; the text being the absurd brother of the photographic document. The photographic document is also never direct or factual. It is structured to make the viewer feel uneasy as if they are faced with a situation which they can fix but are unable to. This is the base on which the narrative stands, this uneasiness. It is the heart and the soul of the piece. Then there are a few images which are metaphysically positioned. These images pose the introspective moments between the uneasiness. The questions that frame our existence. Velocity of darkness in the end is not a single image themed around a subject, but rather single images constructing a theme. It is montage of a city overpopulated, surviving at the brim of collapse, holding onto an age when things were somewhat “golden”.

Photographer

Bivas Bhattacharjee

I am an artist photographer. I have done a 3 Years B.A. Hons in Photography from University College Falmouth, UK.

I have been doing photography for the past 20 years and I love to delve into the surreal. I personally do not delve into documentation of the world, but personally love to capture a mood or the surreal feeling. It is like a memory that is stirred when someone passes by wearing a familiar perfume.

I was previously interested in abstract photography but saw there is this funny blurry abstract in the world around, especially in a city like Kolkata, India where I belong as the chaos is hundred to thousand folds.

Photography to me is sort of a personal exercise in capturing the essence of a place rather than recording it. To me, it has always been more meditative than dramatic.

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