A photograph holds a lot of memory and sometimes it triggers a vivid memory. One of the ongoing debates about photographs is, are they memories and do these memories belong to the people who are in the photographs, or to the person who owns the photograph. However often we reproduce our memories, there is constant self-correction and monitoring taking place in our minds. Before we expose our memories to seek acceptance from others, we usually manipulate them according to our needs.
The photographic series, "Something Must Have Happened", is an attempt to stage memories that I have been collecting over more than a decade while working with the sexual health of men in Delhi. I am revisiting these memories by acting out the roles of the people involved in an encounter. The style of this series of photographs is loosely based on Duane Michals’ sequence “A Man Talking to God” where the subject discovered his inner-self and a conversation ensued about his doubts.
In this series, I am provoking a “question on the action of the telling of a story”. I am also trying to understand what it is like to be on the other side of an argument, a side that we mostly refuse to understand. A misunderstanding that remains in our memories forever.
Courtesy: Dr. Stephen H Dodd for letting me use his beautiful house.