Subhra Battacharya
Subhra Bhattacharya’s visual art can be absorbed and transformed into one’s own spectacle of dreams and emotions. In his photographs, Subhra combines the spontaneity of life with a carefully composed happening.
For this series, Subhra used a technique involving high-speed photography to capture the collisions of water drops. Each image is a spontaneous meeting of millions of water molecules and represents the uniqueness of a single moment in time. Along with the photography technique, Subhra uses colourful light design to enhance the motion of a frozen movement. Every photograph shows beauty and strangeness in looking closer and seeing forms, animals, plants, and fantasy creatures. These captured moments serve as suggestions for the audience’s imagination, travelling back and forth in time and to other dimensions. It can be an escape to the future or a reminder of being present in time and space.
For Subhra, the photographer Laura Letinsky is a great inspiration, and one can see why because there are many parallels in their artworks. Both artists understand how light and colour can change the atmosphere of a photograph. They both know how a photograph’s planned or unplanned staging can transform the audience’s gaze to reflect on one’s individuality. Another photographer who inspires Subhra is Jan Groover. Jan’s and Subhra’s images come alive through their randomness and the abstract behaviour of the assimilation of things, shapes, or water in this highlighted series.
Subhra is a photographer who zooms in on life and how we exist in this world through a different lens. He highlights that we, as human beings, are used to focusing on individuality and our own subjectivity; as a consequence, we often forget how fluid and creative our environment can be. The artist invites us to an abstract staircase where each step can lead to a new realization or focus point. The longer one looks at these photographs, the more there is to detect: a shimmer resembling an eye or a splash spreading its wings to defy gravity. Subhra is a sensitive artist who believes art exists to evoke emotions and reflections from the recipient. He tells stories where anything can happen, and time can stand still or fly away.
Subhra Bhattacharya has had numerous international exhibitions and has won many photographic awards. His work has been published and featured on the covers of various magazines.
Subhra Bhattacharya is the Silver Artist of the ArtAscent Abstract call for artists. To see the full body of work and profile, get a copy of the ArtAscent Art & Literature Journal Abstract issue.
