In the 20th year of the 2000th century occurred a great illness that forced the world inside their homes. Offices were shut, shops closed, streets emptied as Nations and their governments went about locking their citizens inside their (citizens) homes in a bid to save their lives. Billion’s were hospitalised and by the time it all ended million’s had lost their lives.
More than a billion photos were shot and shared across the world. Instagram and Zoom lunged to become the tools of talking and people actually found time to stick to one conversation for more than 7 minutes; because that was the only way they could hear themselves talk. Phone cameras proved their Godliness as photographers created bibles of phone photography. FaceTime found itself shooting fashion portraits. Everyone wanted to be live and kicking.
I too joined the bandwagon. And worked with my collective recapping our journeys as photographers. We re-saw each other’s work, our own work and rediscovered ourselves in more ways than one. Suddenly in 2020 mortality was awfully clear and a timeline had to be decided in which work had to be done. One day I realised how over the years I had built a small but significant body of work which could be dissected and discussed. Another day I learnt how to retrieve the film leader from a canister using double sided tape. I put 35mm film into my 120 mm camera and shot with a happy heart.
One day I thought my time is limited.
2020 promised to change my life forever. It was a jailbreak.
Kartikaya Nagar 