Could I but divide myself up And see every spray On the countless hills Of flowers abloom!
A favourite haiku of shutterbug N.K. Singh, Union revenue secretary. It images the artist lurking in the bureaucrat. Singh was flooded with attention due to his exhibition of photos, titled Romantic Visions of Nature—A Japanese Interlude, in Mumbai from October 21 to 25.
The exhibition was the culmination of Singh's five-year sojourn in Japan as minister in the Indian embassy in Tokyo. Mumbai-based Japanese consul-general Yoshio Yamachishi was all praise: "The pictures are all beautiful and reminded me of many things in Japan." Heart-warming for Singh, who set out to capture the beauty of Japan because he felt "diplomatic life could not be complete without understanding Japanese society" and appreciate their "feel for detail, sense of beauty, respect for tradition, conformity to consensus and an instinctive love for nature." As he notes, the trepidation with which he landed on Japan's shores was replaced with respect and affection for the Japanese. The exhibition, even as it showcases his love for nature, also salutes the country he had come to love.
Singh has many favourites in the line-up of photographs, those screaming with colour balanced by others understanding the luxury of Japan's nature and countryside.The burst of fluorescent colours against an ink-black sky, fireworks caught even as they shatter into myriad shards of light, the shower of blossoms spilling over slender branches, right into one's memory. Singh fondly recollects how, when driving down the towering peaks of Nikko towards Chuzenji Lake, his eye caught an interesting play of autumn shades in the afternoon sun. The angle his camera demanded, placed him in the middle of a busy thoroughfare. He decided to risk the wrath of the drivers zipping past, and for a full 10 minutes, focused his lens on the fleeting play of light and shade. Even though cars piled up behind him, not a horn shattered that perfect moment, as drivers waited out his tryst with nature.
A moment as satisfying to Singh as the impressive turnout at the exhibition's inauguration on October 21 by painter M.F. Husain, industrialist Ratan Tata, actress and MP Shabana Azmi, socialites Bakul Patel and Devika Bhojwani, film-maker B.R. Chopra, singer Kishori Amonkar, former MP and actor Sunil Dutt and media personalities Mallavika Sanghvi, Ronnie Screwalla and Pritish Nandy. Husain went so far as to shower his blessings on the show with an impromptu sketch of a diya. Pramod Navalkar, cultural minister, felt that while it could be easy to capture a beautiful moment in nature, it called for ingenuity to imbue ordinary moments into treasures for memory.
The exhibition, titled 'Seasons', reproduces the many moods of the Japanese landscape. 'Spring' catches on frame the luxurious colours of cherry and peach blossoms; in 'Summer' Iris and Hibiscus display nature's wealth in their coloured veins; 'Fireworks Display', photographed during summer, has shots taken from a tripod placed on a ship anchored mid-stream; 'Autumn' captures the spectacular blaze of the colours of flora and fauna; 'Winter' portrays the desert-like flatness of snow against ice-burdened trees, the tassel of white-and-black patterns against the shadows of a muted sun.
In the visitors' book, Sunil Dutt exclaimed: "Splendid work. It's nice to have an artist in a bureaucrat." Saryu Doshi noted: "Superb photos. They reveal the many nuances of nature that have been captured with rare sensitivity." Standing before a photo of darkly brown trees firmly inked against an azure sky, overshot with a sly ray of sunlight sneaking in through the canopy (shot with ultrawide angle), Amonkar gushed: "When we sing, we look out for a soul note which we can stress. In photography too, we have to find that extra prominence of nature that can be highlighted." And it was not just artistes who reacted with such enthusiasm. Ratan Tata eulogised: "A wonderful display of photos. They display great ingenuity and a very keen eye."
Such enthusiasm must propel Singh towards his next show which, he laughs, shall be ready once the media shreds his first attempt. He intends to reconcile his love for horticulture with photography by titling his next show Roses, tentatively scheduled for March. That done, he might "dare" to work on a book of images, laced with haikus.
Homeopathy, western and Indian classical music, floriculture are all Singh's passions. The primary one being photography, shared by wife Premakumari, who acted as his "caddie", helping her nature-crazy husband with the equipment, piling their children into the car and traipsing through Japan's countryside to capture memories to take back home. "If you wish to follow a hobby personally, there's always time," says Singh, adding, "Feelings of art, what triggers them off, what rekindles them, all these will remain, as the Japanese say, an inexplicable enigma. Just follow your instincts."
