Grey Matter

This exhibition might just be the best thing for you to do over the weekend. check out photography in all its stark reality, where everything is either black, white or in shades of grey an exhibition that shows emotions as raw as they come...

We've seen her as the head of one of Bangalore's leading entertainment dailies, she's a household name when it comes to anything to do with good writing, feature writers swear by her as a comparison and right now she paints pictures with her camera surprised? So were we.


	Sudha Pillai

Sudha Pillai has come a long way and with her first exhibition opening in town today, The Guide decided to get upfront and personal with her.

"I used to hate photography once upon a time," she says, smiling with such warmth that would give any worshipped-ajji icon a run for her money. Sudha is most famous with Bangalore's populace as a writer whose column we all looked forward to every weekend.

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Grey Matter

How she moved from that to 'an artist on the other side of the lens' is a long story.

"My father loved photography and as a child he tried inculcating in me the science and art of photography.
Growing up in Chennai and being forced to learn something I wasn't really interested in, I took a dislike to it. I later grew up and decided to study Journalism and my father again had hope that I would proudly inherit his Pentax and Canon pieces of gold. I disappointed him again and he was almost heartbroken when he had to give them away to a friend."

So how did photography happen, we ask? She laughs at the sheer irony of the incidents that followed and tells us, "My father passed away in April 2008 and one day, December 2, 2008 to be precise, I woke up with a maniacal need to take pictures. The next day, the same urge taunted me, and unable to suppress it, I walked into the Sony Centre in Indiranagar and asked the shop attendant for a camera that would give me A4 size prints. I was bewildered as the attendant, but like true Sony salesmanship he promptly gave me a Sony Cybershot."

"What followed was pure magic. Photography seemed to be my calling and I felt in place like never before clicking away to glory. I uploaded my pictures on Facebook, never even once assuming what might happen. 'Light chasers' a group of amateur professional photographers found my work and began commenting on each piece. In no time, Sujin Balakumaran, one of the groups' members came to realize that I didn't know how I was taking these pictures, which he considered extremely professional. It was almost like I had some hidden talent that I didn't know of. The group began teaching me and soon presented me with amazing editing software.

About the same time an American photographer Steve Paxton began teaching me online too."

So was that how it all began? She nods a gleeful yes, and adds, "Soon I began receiving offers for projects and people also wanted to buy my pictures. I knew I had arrived. Photography was becoming a career and it complemented well with my film-making career that I was pursuing."

So after such a fast and incredibly interesting journey, we ask her why her first exhibition has works only in monochrome, she promptly replies, "There is honesty in monochrome. When I began working with a gay couple, who were friends of mine, during one particular photo-shoot, inhibitions seem to have melted away and the two men let loose a plethora of emotions. Busy capturing the moment, I forgot to consider who I was shooting till in one sudden moment, I realized these were two men kissing in front of me. The way I reacted startled me and I realized how perspectives of gender, sex,u00a0 and race etc., could affect the way one captures of reacts to an emotion. Emotions in monochrome are devoid of these biases. They are as true as the world ought to see them and hence I prefer the shades of black and white and all the grays in between."

Sudha's work
What: Emotions in Monochrome
Where: Renaissance Gallerie, 104, West Minister, 13, Cunningham Raod
When: Sep 25 to Oct 3, 11 AM to 7 PM
Price: Rs 5,000 - 15,000