In the business
of our everyday lives, we frequently
forget to really look at the faces before us and read the stories they could
tell us. In ‘Notes from the Black Room’, photographer Maria Philipose compels
us to confront a pantheon of faces and read if we can the lush histories,
memories, pasts and personas they reflect. She presents extreme close ups of
her subjects, and in her portraits of ordinary men and women, in their
wrinkles, lines, imperfections and flaws is revealed the beauty of a life lived
with self reflection and meaning. These close ups pulsate with the energy and
passion of their subjects’ living lives that are extraordinary, hinting at
something larger and more deeply personal than our cookie cutter socially lived
lives.
With her contemplative
portraits, Maria underlines the photographic image with a sense of calm and
sanctity. In these days of a selfie a second, Maria presents images that will
take you multiple visits to absorb, each photograph revealing a moving rawness
of expression and emotion; each image a revelation of the self – both of
subject and photographer and by drawing us in – of the viewer too.
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Brand designer for
over two decades, Maria has a wealth of experience working with visual design
for a number of prestigious hotels and properties. This particular project
however evolved slowly, taking time to come into focus. “For the first time,”
says Maria, “I had no agenda. I started taking these photographs and I didn’t
really know what I was going to do with them. I wanted to see where it would
take me; I wanted to step into the unknown.” Fascinated by “the wide lens of
people” coming into the bohemian Artjuna Café in Anjuna, Maria spent over a
year and a half bringing her “notes” together, getting to know her subjects before
and while photographing them. “Their faces called to me,” she says of how she
found her subjects. “And I wanted to know their stories. I found pain in their
pain, joy in their joy. I realised how many people just want their stories to
be heard. The ‘otherness’ dissolved, we connected and I realized that our
stories are the same, no matter how we look on the outside.”
Maria enhances the
images by pairing them with text; each photograph bears a few insightful lines
alongside. Resonant with words like ‘freedom’, ‘joy’, ‘abandon’, ‘wild’,
‘love’, ‘curtail’, ‘chains’ – these are engrossing psychological explorations
that take viewers further into the existential dilemmas connecting all of us.
“Who am I?” asks one portrait. The answer is there too – “Look at my face. It
is all here.”
In another, Maria
asks, whether on her own behalf or her subject’s – “Why can’t I stop dreaming?”
Deliberately removing every filter – of colour, place and context – these
photographs are “de-layered” – “It is not about hair colour, and pattern or
colour of clothing or skin or nationality. That is unimportant detail. It is
just about the person and their story.”
We play so many roles
in our daily everyday lives. Through the portraits of these individuals and
their poetic quests, through the character etched on their faces and in their
eyes and expressions; in their sheer living of life – the gifted photographer
impels us to go deeper and examine our inner lives. Maria brings home the
larger picture with these very personal portraits, compelling us to enjoy the
richness of life, sparking the joy of looking closer, looking again and
discovering something new.
Surely there must be
For me somewhere another sunrise
Of something new, something else
For me to breathe in joy and sorrow
And to discover, all I think of me
And the world, may not be so
(Words
by Maria Philipose)
‘In
Notes from the Black Room’ is on view at Artjuna Café, Anjuna until December
12, 2019
