Following the private view on 19 May of our forthcoming exhibition SARAH AINSLIE, ‘Indian Photographers Captured’. You are invited to come and participate in creating a photographic studio within the gallery’s natural surroundings using props and backdrops. 2-5pm. Free. Please email us if you plan to attend info@rableydrawingcentre.com
http://www.rableydrawingcentre.com
You are welcome to BRING A PICNIC to enjoy in the countryside around the gallery after the private view. You are invited to participate in our event with the artist. Sarah will be creating a photographic studio within the gallery’s natural surroundings using props and backdrops during the afternoon.
SORRY NO DOGS Our farm is a conservation area encouraging ground nesting birds, wildlife and flowers. Therefore we are very sorry but we cannot allow dogs onto the farm or in the vicinity of the gallery.
About ‘Indian Photographers Captured’
In ‘Indian Photographers Captured’ Sarah Ainslie has created a series of portraits of Indian photographers in their own photography studios.
Studio photographs have recorded generations of India families. The studio scenario created by the photographer remains a space where the aspirations of millions of Indians are realised. A place where lavish backdrops and embellished outfits often elevate the sitter.
On a recent trip to Rajasthan in India Ainslie became fascinated with the photographic studios in small towns. Here an intimate family group enters the more public space of the studio to pose for a portrait with props in front of exotic painted backdrops, that create dreamlike places. The studio photographer is the impresario in his own world where Chinese pagoda’s and waterfalls contrast the desert breeze and ordinary lives of the people on the street.
Ainslie documented these studios and the photographers that are slowly disappearing. Their decline is due to the growth of digital technology, and because there are greater opportunities for many Indians to travel and visit the places previously represented by the backdrops.
In each different town Ainslie would search for photography studios and commission a portrait in the studio setting, then ask the photographer to allow her to turn tables and to photograph him. The portrait of ‘Suresh Kumar Joshi’ (Illustrated) was captured In Jaisalmer. It is an historic studio run by Suresh Kumar Joshi and his son Manoi Joshi. The studio was founded in the early 1900’s by Suresh’s father Shivshanker. They still reproduce some of the photographs from this time, mostly of royalty and taken outside using glass plates.
Other works in the exhibition
“I have been interested in making composites from photographs for some time, exploring ways of merging time and place, the old and the new. In my journey to India I experienced being in the middle of the past and present colliding, in an extraordinary and quite magical way. This has led me to make work that brings together photographs of every day activities in the street with images of the ancient traditional places in Rajasthan imbued with such a powerful history”
Sarah Ainslie was part of the ‘Drawn to India’ sketchbook tour to Rajasthan 2012
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