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P R A D E E Po C H A N D R A
News photographs are often treated as adjuncts to the word but
many of Pradeep Chandra's photographs have taken the shape of
a narrative. In them, events take on new meanings so that pomp
and splendour are exposed to the merciless eyes of irony, and the
humble is rendered triumphal. To me, his special gift lies in
his sympathy for the human face. I remember his brilliant portrait
of Yahuda Amichai, poet laureate of Israel in which he captured
the quiet
intensity of the poet. His recent exhibition of photographsof the displaced persons of
Kashmir was poignant and moving without
exoticising their predicament.
It is often said that once photography arrived, art was liberated
to reinvent the world. This view neglects the fact that the camera
also recreates the cosmos it captures.
Chandra has participated in this project creating images that
are simultaneously personal and universal.
Jerry Pinto
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