Chatting up Diwan Manna, the first Indian to hold an exhibition in Berlin, Germany, beginning September 28
BALPREET
She lays bare, naked in white death. The sheet across her runs lucent. Quite like the fence between life and death…. That brings him closer to life several degrees more.
Well, Diwan Manna is because life is. And since he is, are also his images. In custody of his camera.
And why you read this at this point in time runs into the fact that he has just left for Berlin to be the first Indian photographer whose frames would hang down the walls of Gallery Bellevue there September 28 on. About 32 of his frames handpicked from his early series – ‘Waking the Dead’ besides many new ones would be for all to see till end October And October 5 on would see 60 of his works hanging at the newly built Museum of Indian Art, Berlin.
So one fine afternoon, when the City blowed hot and very hot, we sat chatting Diwan up. Beginning with the now of things… ‘A friend in Berlin liked my work and passed on a catalogue to the gallery guys. Well, they liked what they saw and here I am – with an invitation and sponsorship to hold this exhibition.” As your eyes roam the room, scanning the large frames hanging down his sitting room, wonder pendulates about his picture that look paintings… The process is as absorbing. Letting us in on it, he says: “Some day, a vision just floats my way. Sometimes an entire picture which I put to the lens years later. The going-about is the same – sketching out a frame – getting together all the elements – say painting in 10 by 10, studio lights, model …. I like to use non professional models who would become the picture more easily than the pretty themselves.” And then, of course, follows the flirting with filters…. “but I guess, the real bliss is when a vision comes leaving me wondering – how come, me!!. It can be so intriguing”
Like death, which he keeps returning to… “Death across my frames is not always actual – it could be the killing of the soul, each moment – the subtle violence that keeps ticking along.” One of his earliest series raised question marks to the germs eating into Punjab, Herzegovina, J&K, Sri Lanka…. As in the one that strikes with a baby lotus jutting out of water – hues of blues, blacks and even sheer white - the frames look more of the brush than the lens. “I hit upon this technique while working on a magazine that never happened. They wanted something new… and I just happened to work with Viren Tanwar’s painting and a model.”
And along kept happening a series like ‘Alienation’ on the City dhabawallahs, rickshawallas – in black and white-etching out the dark shrouding their lives – a lot flowing out of his studying Nirmal Verma, Sartre, Kumar Vikal, Raghubir Sahai, Surjit Pattar, Shiv Kumar Batalvi et al. “Poetry can really firm up your ideas – as can your friends, the literature you read, your upbringing…” And then there’ve been influences flowing out of the works of US-based Cindy Sherman, as well as the classic Van Gogh, Matisse, and now our very own Raghu Rai – “I love the way he surrounds himself with all that makes and pains our society.”
Which brings us to wonder how close stands an artist to what we call social responsibility…. “Art gives direction. It may not be a communist. It works on your conscience, subtly, slowly. As for me, it reflects in the way I go about life – reinforcing my identity every time I digress. It gives me ‘ myself’. And the feedback leaves me more responsible,” smiles Manna. Besides earning for him his daily bread – also by way of the commercial and corporate industrial photography he does which is “a lot of hard work – creating beauty out of concrete.”
And now, “I want to do my own nude portraits. Art good enough for sharing has to offer something else than the run-of-the-mill.. it has to talk to you.”
As does his muse to him and the rest….
PICTURE OR PAINTING? That’s what has you staring right into Diwan Manna’s frames
Bareta to Berlin, it’s been a long road
FROM breathing life into lines and curves in school at little known Bareta (Punjab) to putting a finger to photography after a degree in fine arts from College of Art here, Diwan Manna’s tryst with all that his camera has related to has carried him beyond his vision. Like more than a dozen individual exhibitions across UK and France besides within the country. Not missing the group exhibitions with AIFACS, New Delhi, NZCC, Punjab Lalit Kala Academy, Alliance Francaise… In between have been sprinklings of multimedia workshops as ‘artist in residence’ spanning across UK. Awards and honours have been more than trickling in – National Academy Award, Central Lalit Kala Academy; All India Photography Awards AIFACS (1995, 196) besides from North Zone Cultural Centre, 1991. All India Exhibition of Photo-prints and Graphics. State Deptt of Language, Art and Culture, HP (1984). There’ve been honours flowing in from State Lalit Kala Academy, Punjab (1996) and the Photo Artist of Year Honour (1998)…
