His lens captures a mosaic of human-interest messages whenever he steps out with his camera. From Sikkim to Rajasthan, from Midnapore to Benaras, an untold story of an unseen sight spontaneously strays into his viewfinder, only to get clicked and frozen in the frame. Talented shutterbug Seshadri Moitra recently joined hands with another quality photographer Kaushik Majumder to unveil a photography exhibition titled People and Planet at Kolkata’s Gaganendra Pradarsashala Art Gallery.
Every picture, we know, is worth a thousand words. And for Moitra, every slide of his amassed collection tells a unique tale. Just picture this: Imagine a pack of Buddhist monks in a playful mood. Breaking free from their stern fetters of austerity, all cut across a happy portrait as wanton boys in a silent monastery. Next comes a century-old matriarch, who is being fondled by one of her great grandkids, God only knows from which generation! Her weather-beaten face marked with countless lines is filled with unbridled joy and reflected through a loud grin. The silver tufts of her grey hair still in place, the golden top dangling loose from her earlobe and the glint in her watery eyes shines in a dimmed daylight like her age-defying spirit. Then there is this little Muslim boy, who watches his sister engagingly with his unblinking eyes, as she beautifully paints the Hindu gods and goddesses on scrolls of art papers following the famous tradition of patachitra craft in Bengal.
Moving on, a daily-wage woman labourer is seen carrying a heavy load of cement over her head to a nearby construction site. Her figure of tireless drudgery is a sharp contrast to the placid backdrop of a sandy beach with a huge tilted boat anchored aside. The vast sky above her and the seashore beneath her feet might lend her sweaty, tired brows some cool, fresh breeze but nope, there’s no respite from her slogging grind, which is her sole means of living. Now check this out.
Skimming forth the array, the onlooker’s glance zooms in on a desert safari, where a caravan of camels with men riding on them marches ahead, throwing up a puff of dust in the air from the slippery yellow loess lying below the animals’ hard hooves. The sand dunes in the background glow under the sun’s glare amidst a play of light and shade.
A Central government employee, Moitra’s entry into photography was simply an accident, he confides. “Oh, I just happened to have the knack of taking snaps on a random basis. But that it would inevitably translate into a passion someday, was never my preconceived intention,” he reveals. That was almost 30 years ago in 1985, when this self-taught artist started arresting interesting slivers from the space given around him. “What was just for the lark in the beginning has now seriously penetrated into my system. And I don’t know how to cure myself of this fever. Or may be I don’t want to,” he says.
A glance at Moitra’s fascinating series of shots will shed a focus on his particular area of interest and that is, the planet and its people. Be it a bohemian human lifestyle or a colourful festival, a dynamic sporting arena or a stupefying landscape, Moitra’s camera candidly catches all with a speck of thought spared on each object. While laurels flowed in at a regular pace to felicitate this low-key artist’s commendable feat, the creator wishes to remain tight-lipped about his winning streak. “My work should do all the talking. Not my accolades. Even if it is at an international level,” he serves it clean and straight. And we get it clearly.
In between his desk job of auditing and accounting, Moitra works diligently at his editing room to develop his pieces, containing his individual signature style. Indeed a respectable artist of his industrious department, where only sums, numbers, calculations, turnovers and ledger folios are discussed, this soft-spoken lensman honestly admits to have halted his photography stint somewhat in the middle. “Well, familial and career pressures were too taxing for me to handle initially. Hence, I had to digress to a different path,” he concedes without mincing words. Back with a bang again after a long break in 2009, Moitra’s inaugural revival show was a group exhibition from the reputed banner of Captivitas at the same venue last May.
Having showcased an array of 20 prints in this recently held exhibition, Moitra’s kitty of images could make an emphatic impression. “I’m satisfied with the overall response from this wide display. And am sure that this would encourage me to deliver more works,” he signs off.