KOCHI: In his seminal work on art criticism titled ‘Ways of seeing’, British novelist and cultural theorist John Berger wrote, “The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled.” This seems particularly true while glancing at old black and white photographs. Even with their enduring charm, which the newer sophisticated digital cameras can hardly replicate, black-and-white photos seem fixed in the moment they were taken, distant, remote and almost enigmatic.
For Jithin Majeed, a cinematographer and editor based in the UK, filling the various shades of grey with colour and vibrancy was a way of erasing years of separation between the subjects and viewers.
As proof of concept, the Kozhikode-bred 23-year-old colourised multiple archive images from Kerala, not of prominent personalities but of normal people who lived in the pre-independence era. What started as a passion project, has now turned into an attempt to understand the larger socio-cultural history of the state.“I have always been fascinated by the concept of adding colour to film and pictures.
However, I could not have done it a few years ago because I didn’t have the access to the right resources. Last year, a programmer called Jason Antic developed a code and put it online as an open-source software. So I worked on that to execute the idea. I have come across projects from the west with impressive colourisation transformation, one being the documentary film ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’. It is made using original footage from World War 1.
But I am not aware of any such attempts from Kerala. The novelty of it was also one of the impetus,” says Jithin whose documentary ‘Moksha’ set in Varanasi about people spending their last days in the holy city in hope of salvation won the Royal Television Society Student Award for last year.
Jithin, a recent graduate in film studies from Regent’s University London, scoured the internet to source high-resolution archival public domain pictures that reflect the complex social fabric of erstwhile Kerala with its myriad communities undergoing a flux owing to colonisation. The images he chose encompass a wide milieu and throw light on the discernable presence of upper-castes, the role of women in society and the state of more impoverished classes. “Although, it wasn’t a conscious choice. I didn’t research much about who the subjects in the photographs were. I was only particular about having people in the images, how they were positioned, their facial expression and body language,” adds Jithin.
Through his work, Jithin is also underscoring the power dynamics at play when a brown subject interacts with the camera held by a white man. “It is important to look at who the people were taking these photos and to what end. From what I could gather, some of the photographs have been credited to Klein & Pearl Studio in Madras set up by German photographers.” Currently working on a few international projects, Jithin plans to carry forward his colourisation project.
Find Jithin on Instagram @jithinmajeed