remembering moments

Remembering late Maizan Hassan Maniku
The final presentation of the photojournalism workshop organised by him in 2002.
Three prints of all participants were on open display in the final presentation day.

I chose these three (faces in the studio portrait category):

1 - The changing little girl (Aimi). She is changing clothes to pose for us. I deliberately did not want to display a neatly posed photo and instead chose to tell the story of the moments in between the shoots which was the live event. And  it was the movement that i captured and not the sharp detail of the face.

2 - White moment. A high key portrait of one of the participants. I wanted to present the blankness of a moment and the thinking mind at the same time and shot in high key to eliminate all around the subject. After shooting i realized that the stand of a light is visible but i liked the accent of the studio quality and kept without cropping.

3 - Relaxing. Maizan Hassanbe relaxing in between shoots. Yes he posed on one session and it was fun too. I had very sharp shots too but again did not want to show precision of photography but instead wanted to be in the moment and present the in between shot of a relaxed moment. I also liked the blur on this picture because he was constantly moving and talking at the same time.

colours of nature

remembering late Maizan Hassan Maniku
I made this document for an assignment of a workshop on photojournalism he organised in 2002.
When presented he liked, requested having it with him and i gave the original print.

White

Hmm … and my mind begins to mêlée!!

The morning is here, as lithe as the ever changing light that slither around me. From dark to darker and slowly change to smell the distant colours of the cityscape. Awake in the silent early morning to write of the many colourless thoughts that foster inside of me. How can I write why I did not wake up yesterday morning? After so many needless answers a feeble reminder tells that to wake one need to sleep. If my mind is colourless like the mirage in a reflection, then my hand holds the ink of which I am the printing press. Remembering my old pressed notes like “she is dressed in white until pierced and flow a scarlet vase”.

After all those impatient thoughts in my mind, finally I decide to write. Pouring all those thoughts to a visible surface to see nothing is visible anymore. The fluid thoughts wash away the words as quickly as they settle. Seems like the pigment of the pencil, ink of the pen and the paper to write are all in white.

burunu

Soon after the westerly wind blows

And into another world I creep

Neither own nor ever seen the reality of time

Let pass I see the moments go by

The hidden burunu¹ that gaily shines

New life begins and toil the land

A seafarer’s journey it is I travel

Where there are no roads that lead

Led by a wandering wind by day

And follow a lost stellar by night

Remember what it is that makes a smile

And use it as an umbrella in times of rain

And as a shade in sunny days that follow

But keep it till the monsoon, which is sure to come

It’s hard to predict a gleaming smile

Naively it arrive at unusual moments

So hold on to the luster of the funnel

^{1 the constellation of Taurus}

1 & i

Is value a number on a coin? Or is it how a person values that coin? For some time now, my mind ripples unnecessarily floating afar the idea of how one cent relates to me.

From antiquity we dig the earth, bring out from within many kinds of minerals. Crush burn and hammer them to make a happy go round and press a hot plate to inscribe a sign. Proudly naming it and even labeling it a value for exchange. What you get there for that one cent is not what I get here. But do we not cover ourselves similarly or do we not eat in similar ways and most interestingly do we not “drop mangoes” exactly with the same smell? In fact do we not sit on the same thing to drop them? Some even sit on a Philippe Starck to drop the same (I do like Starck design that is why am mentioning the name). The romanticism of sitting on a designer toilet fitting is totally different and what I worry is only the economic nonsense it makes to do so. I do believe that human back have not changed since we learned to walk upright, or maybe even since long before that. Hence a functional object to fit our back need not change. Form of almost all toilet seats are similar including that of Starck. Only the object itself is fancifully elaborated. Whenever I start the story of the toilet I get a transit flight with delayed timings so will stop this subject and might write about it later.

Now where was i? I am here. Only thing missing is 1. How do 1 relate to i? hmm…? Today I propose a life without a single coin. Not only because I got robbed early Friday morning. But I do believe that it is possible. Imagine this!!! Or in reality think deeply about this!!!

I propose to offer my service free of charge. Why not? Yes it is possible. I simply have to do the things I do, and keep on doing and yet not bill my clients and even tell my clients not to pay. That is how I can do it. Now it is done and so how to proceed. When I do not get paid for the work I do and in fact the only income is no longer claimed then how do I settle my utility bills or get the food I eat or how do I cover my body with a descent cloth. This is the point where others come in to the newly formed thinking. As I begin to work for no return, simply I want a cloth manufacturer to give away some clothes for no cost at all, and a farmer to give their produce for no return at this moment. But now you will wonder then how do the cloth manufacturer and the farmer live on. They will have more than enough for them to wear and feed for themselves. If this is going little awkward to understand let me put it in a simpler way.

If everyone offers to give their own produce and/or service at no cost at all, then no one will ever need to purchase anything. I will offer my service free and my basic necessity (don’t even think about it … what I mean here is descent basic necessity like food, clothing and in today’s words utility and other bills and so on) fulfilled by you at no cost.

Let us erase the concept of money and our smile shall come back. A world without a demand and supply tension that already has reached a limit state. (I cannot explain limit state in tensile structures, an engineer can answer that). Imagine a people without greed and hatred. Feel a hug that will not cost you anything. Sense a handshake that will not lead to a wallet. Knowing how worried someone is will never cost you a hidden communication package.

Seriously I am proposing this and as you might be wondering, yes I am ready to begin. Are you ready to walk with me? I honour my droppings and that does not cost me anything but gain free ideas by losing some weight.

twitchy like a tot

Twitchy like a tot, the little specks jazz in the afternoon light which enters, without my blessing, through the window in the loft. The two analogous rays foil the concept that I sketch and the startling glow tempt to play with them. They begin from a bright white, spread out wide and seem more as they come close to disappear into the dark to nowhere. Yes invisible as they come closer to tickle me and giggling they go visible back to where they come. I tell the naughty little ones how I fancy catching them if they come to do that again. They never hear me but keep on playing tick trail until their watchful mother leisurely lay one by one to sleep.