There is a sense of calm at the gallery. You’re immediately transported to a world filled with the sight and sound of birds.
On the walls, each photograph of birds sits neatly in place, catching its own beam of light. One is mid-flight, while another turns its head as if to gaze directly at you. Some are familiar. Others are not. For a few minutes, the room feels removed from the bustling city outside.
You’re amid nature, a spectator, temporarily a birder.
At Durbar Hall Art Centre, the 16th bird photography exhibition organised by the Induchoodan Foundation is something not to be missed.
Birds have always held a special place in our imagination. Artists have painted them, naturalists have drawn them, trying to capture every physical characteristic. Photographers have waited hours to capture a single movement.
“Perhaps it is their freedom that draws us in. Or the simple fact that they can do something humans have always dreamt of doing — fly,” says art critic and photographer M Ramachandran, who is curating the exhibition.
According to him, birds are symbols of how far our imaginations can fly. A link between fantasy and reality.
The exhibition explores this fascination through 50 photographs by 26 lensmen. On display from September 23 to 27, the exhibition brings together images of several birds found in Keralam, including rare species.
The show is inspired by ‘Keralathile Pakshikal’, the landmark work by Professor K K Neelakantan, better known as Induchoodan, after whom the foundation is also dedicated, organisers say.
Some of the birds featured are not mentioned in the book. This is a sign of the change in our ecosystem, says Ramachandran.
“Due to climate change and their movement patterns, many birds have started coming to Keralam. We cannot ignore such birds,” he says, pointing to the changing nature of the state’s birdlife. He recalls a falcon that arrived in Kochi last year.
In this way, he adds, the exhibition is not just a collection of beautifully photographed birds; it is also a record of a changing landscape.
At its heart is Induchoodan, who made the observation of birds accessible to Malayalis through his writing and drawings.
“An English professor by profession, he devoted much of his life to observing birds, their nests and eggs, documenting them through both words and images. He was a pioneer in ‘seeing’ the birds, and his writing was also distinctly different from the dry language of scientific documentation. It has the warmth of observation from a writer and not a scientist’s point of view,” Ramachandran says.
‘Keralathile Pakshikal’ was also the first book published by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi, he informs.
The Induchoodan Foundation, formed three years ago to mark his birth centenary and carry his legacy to a new generation, has so far organised 15 exhibitions throughout Keralam.
For Ramachandran, the photographs and Induchoodan’s words belong together. Passages from Induchoodan’s Malayalam prose have therefore been woven into the exhibition. The Foundation has also given the exhibition a title that brings language into the experience:
‘Parannuyarunna Malayalam’
The photographs themselves are a statement, which Ramachandran says, is not easy. The subject rarely waits for the perfect frame. The photographer has to work with movement, focus, speed, and the right equipment, while remaining close to nature without disturbing it, he explains. More than technical skill, though, he believes a bird photographer needs affection for the subject.
“We should be close to nature and take photographs without harming the birds. The love we have for them is what we see in a photographer.”
Birds, according to him, can also appear ‘human’. “Some of them pose like humans. There is a photograph that reminds me of the sculpture ‘The Thinker’ by Auguste Rodin. A black-winged stilt, mid-meditation. All of us are connected; if we look close enough, we can find human elements even in the animals,” he smiles.
The exhibition brings out that connection. As one stands before a photograph, observing a wing, a feather, a sudden gaze, it invites you into a new colourful world. The curator asks for little from its visitors. “The hope is to inculcate a love for birds and nature in anyone who visits the exhibition. That’s all. Nothing more or less,” says Ramachandran.