KOCHI: After the second world war, Kerala faced an acute shortage of cameras. The studio owners in those days used to depend on imported cameras. It is then, that they got their hands on the ‘Vageeswari’ camera. Founded by 16-year-old K Karunakaran, a boy hailing from a small seaside town in Alappuzha in 1942, it became the state’s first homegrown camera. Karunakaran, son of Kunju Bhagavathar, a part-time musician who also repaired instruments, used to help his father quite often. Once, a studio owner, Padmanabhan Nair, in Alappuzha approached Bhagavathar to repair the bellows of his foreign-made camera. Though Bhagavathar took days to finish the work, the studio owner was impressed with the result. He decided to assign more work to Bhagavathar, but he refused.
However, a keen and observant Karunakaran took up the duty. This is when Karunakaran conceived the idea for Vageeswari, using local parts except for the lens which was imported from Germany. The teakwood cameras were in demand in 1945 and Karunakaran set up a shop at Mullackal in Alappuzha to manufacture them.
The camera gave studios back then a unique identity, while also revolutionalising local photography. Artist Anu John David viewed Vageeswari with a sense of admiration. “It is still shocking to think how a 16-year-old boy invented the camera that was on par with models of global brands. He had little information and guidance on how a camera works. Interestingly, he made eight variants for the camera - to capture everything from passport-sized photos to wide group photos. Those days, group photos were in demand and that was Vageeswari’s win,” he says.
A designer by profession, Anu, a self-taught artist, preferred to etch the images from history so they can be shared with many generations. Through Vageeswari’s lens, Anu captured the images of Alappuzha’s cultural migration. Though he is from Karunagapally in Kollam district, Anu remembers spending his childhood days in Alappuzha as his mother was a teacher at a school in the district.
“I wanted to document Alappuzha’s history. Cultural migration happened there during different eras. There were times when the region saw the rein of Buddhists, Portuguese, Jews, Dutch, and British,” he says. He collected the information during his travels, through extensive reading and research.
“It is said that Kuttanad was under the sea at one point and the land was formed from the river deposits. Legend also says Alapuzha was a forest and raging wildfire burnt the place down, forming lower Kuttanad. That is why several places in Alappuzha has names that start or end with the term ‘kari’(burnt) like Ramankary, Kainakary, Chennamkari and Mitrakkary
History through lens
Highlighting the Buddhist influence in Alappuzha Anu took the image of ‘Karumadi Kuttan’ near the Amabalapuzha temple, where a Buddhist statue made of black granite stands tall as a reminder of history. The statue dates back to the 11th century. “According to the information I gathered, there are three Buddha statues - one is in the Mavelikkara Buddha Junction, Karumadi Kuttan, and one in Krishnapuram palace. Also, the places which had ‘pally’ is said to be Buddhist settlements,” he adds.
‘Purakad, which was once a Portuguese settlement, has a church that highlights the same. “Cherthala and Muttam had Jewish influences. I documented fields to show the existence of Jews, over time the land went through changes and now it is full of chemmeen kettu and none of Jewish influences can be traced now,” says Anu.
He has also recommended anecdotes from Dutch and British history. However, a detailed history is yet to be written. During British Raj, communities like Ravuthar, Gujrati were brought to Alapuzha to develop trade. “Alappuzha witnessed myriad cultural exchanges. In the current landscape, there is barely any of it visible. Not every place have historical evidence,” says Anu.
His photographs also documented Mundro lighthouse, canals and Muslim churches. Canals are photographed to show the trade links, whereas the Muslim churches show the presence of the Muslim community which migrated as part of trade and built mosques along the banks of the canal.
“I am not trying to prove history or showcase solid evidence. The images I photographed are those I could connect with, or rather correlate to the research I gathered,” says Anu.
Transformation to frames
Anu didn’t want to document photographs as real images. Adding his own interpretations, Anu reverse-painted the black and white negatives of the photographs taken with Vageeswari. A tint of red, hues of green, and pink are handpainted in the photograph. “This is my narration. I gave red colour to the waters as life in Alappuzha is not easy. For a visitor, it is a fun place filled with greenery, beautiful sunsets, and houseboats. But for those who live here, it is filled with floods, high tides, shortage of drinking water and many more long-standing issues,” says Anu.
Finding Vageeswari
It was quite the challenge for Anu to get his hands on a Vageeswari. He travelled miles to find one that still works. Studio owners who had Vageeswari didn’t want to part ways with the camera as it was part of their identity. Few antique dealers charged an exorbitant amount for it. “It took me almost a month to get Vageeswari from Satheesh Nair, a friend of mine. The market price of Vageeswari is very high,” adds Anu.
Anu had two film slides in the camera, and he could only capture four images with those. “As I was travelling with Vageeswari, I used washrooms along the way to process the images, fixing black chart papers on windows to block the light. Though it was time-consuming, it was quite the experience,” he said. Anu had to fix any possible light leakage in the image too.
Around 16 images were exhibited at the Lokame Tharavadu art exhibition by the Kochi Biennale Foundation, which recently concluded in Alappuzha.