The last time Bangalore showed up on this blog, was in 2015. I haven’t had a chance to be back in the city – till today! I’m here to photograph an event related to India’s political space. As a photographer, and as someone who has never publicly shared her political views – because I didn’t really have any – this feels weird. Even though I am still not making a political statement, the fact that I am photographing those who do hold a strong political ideology, kinda takes that away from me. Instead of getting into details of my political beliefs, I’m going to avoid them completely.
I’ve never been one to cow away from something purely because of fear. But I have been tempted to do so now, many times. Family and friends are legitimately concerned for my safety. This is the India of 2018 that I, unfortunately, have to live in.
My focus here, while in Bangalore ( just for a couple of days ), is to try and make photographs to the best of my ability and to not let the politics interfere with my head as an artist. Should be easy.
I cannot believe I’m having to do this, but after the response I got on my Instagram and Twitter ( after posting a selfie with Rahul Gandhi ), I’m sure of the nature and volume of the responses I’m going to receive as I work more in this arena. I truly do appreciate each and every comment I get ( except the death / rape threats ) because someone – a real person – took time to look at what I had to show and then took more time to think about how they felt and then took yet more time to actually type out a comment and hit “post”. Thank you for the attention and the engagement. I consider most of those comments as “trolling” and refrain from engaging.
Photographs are from my flight from Delhi to the drive from the Bangalore airport to the city. Bangalore is a pretty city! ( No, I don’t want to call it Bengaluru. )
Bangalore on the blog previously.
