Portraiture is his calling card and the camera is his weapon. Two iconic images that come to mind when the work of photographer Rohit Chawla is mentioned are of Vikram Seth and contemporary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. The Vikram Seth image appeared on a magazine cover in 2014 and spoke volumes on the Supreme Court judgement on Section 377 which dealt with the issue of decriminalising homosexuality.
Says Chawla, “The credit goes entirely to the writer who agreed to do something as unconventional as that.” The Suitable Boy author was captured most unsuitably—with unruly hair and unshaven face, holding up a board stating: “I’m not a criminal.”
Chawla recalls, “When I landed up at his (Seth’s) place at seven in the morning, he opened the door in this state. Rather than let him shave and dress properly, I insisted on shooting him the way he was. Reluctantly, he agreed.” The incident summarises what Rohit Chawla is about—insistence on the unconventional aesthetic of reality and making a statement. He wants his images to be as honest as possible. “They are about me and my subject,” he says.
Lack of ceremony makes each image stand out. Rohit’s career curve began with advertising, which he outgrew to choose magazine work. “I got tired of creating the beautiful lie. I soon realised that I enjoyed journalistic work more than advertising,” he smiles. He believes in the power of the staged image.
“Merely shooting a monument at dusk or a man sleeping on a rickshaw or a wrinkled face in Ladakh won’t cut it anymore. You can succeed only by creating a language of your own,” he says. Ai Weiwei’s photo, shot in Lesbos in Greece on the lines of the drowned three-year-old Syrian boy’s viral image, raised uncomfortable questions. “At the end of the day, a photographer is only known for about 10-15 great images,” he signs off. Chawla is still shooting.
A believer in making a statement, Chawla wants his images to be honest. Lack of ceremony makes them stand out.