In the digital age, photography is perhaps the most difficult medium because every image echoes in the memory as stale, old, already viewed. It is a challenge to produce something new and exciting. In a solo show of Rami Dagar’s photographs, Oasis of Colour, presented by Gallery Ensign, the pictures range from the
familiar to the original. His photography works mainly revolve around wildlife, nature and landscape. Despite living in Sweden, over the years Rami has spent substantial time in India staying close to his roots and carving out a strong bi-cultural dimension to his personality and work.
There are some standard bread and butter photographs of the mountains, and forests with spotted deer and tigers lurking in the grass. But from within this repository emerges a surprise that evokes an emotional response from the viewer, based on nostalgia, memory, curiosity and empathy. The image could be a line of shikaras on the Dal Lake with the dry hills of Srinagar in the background or a group of happy villagers in colourful regalia returning home after a celebration or a local festival/market.
One wants to participate in the joy and the carefree atmosphere, all the while conjecturing about the occasion that created this moment.
Rami’s photographs focus on simple themes but his handling of the medium can be very distinct, with focus on certain elements, while the rest remain diffused. This comes through in most of his wildlife photography especially of butterflies.
One of the best works in this range is Wet Wedding, a photograph captured through a sheet of water, the protagonists mellowed by the light and the screen of water, the moment somber and yet festive. There is an element of abstraction in some of his works, like the macro shots of lichen on rocks that have a similar effect as paintings.
— The writer is an art historian, curator and critic