Vikram Kushwah
Hi everyone, this is Vikram Kushwah. My new photography project ‘First Light’ will be part of this year’s PhotoVogue Festival, to be held in Milan from 6 to 9 March. The photo festival will be focussed around the theme ‘Tree of Life - A Love Letter to Nature’, telling important stories from all over the world about our relationship with the natural world, and our place in it - one of the most important subjects of our times.
My photo series is a gaze on how at first light of birth, we mirror the essence of nature - unspoiled, without motive or intent, every act coming out of pure instinct, rather than reason. As children, we are in our purest form, at Shunya (emptiness). This echo of spirit between animal and child is what threads these photos together.
My teacher, Ram Dass, says, “I like to believe in childhood or child-like qualities as a goal. Or a way to reach spiritual awareness. And it’s not to go back to being a child, it’s to be child-like, in the sense of innocence, openness, freshness and beginning.”
Please see below as I share the fuller depth of the story and more photos.
The family raise animals for their livelihood, a way of the world I struggle with. For all that, Clara and Rupert are full of wonder and curiosity around the animals, sharing a playful, non-transactional bond with them. The ego that creates separateness and boundaries is barely present. They’re yet to grow up and have that purity replaced by bias, fears, and worldly desires. They remind me of my 7 year old self. On Sundays I’d be flat on my belly next to a murky pond waiting for “Papa Frog” to appear with a splash. When the great amphibian emerged from the depths, I was ecstatic. The animals and I were part of the whole.
Then there is 7 year old Maisie, the eldest child, on a different plane of consciousness. She has a genetic disorder resulting in development delay and intellectual disability. Maisie reflects the animals further, as she’s full of sounds and expressions but is unable to speak. I see her as a human incarnation of nature, with no identification with the Self, fully present, and possessed of an unmediated wisdom that lies dormant in most adults. This was clear to me when Maisie held a lamb and Clara asked her mother, “Mum, why isn’t Maisie scared of the mummy sheep?” Unlike her siblings, Maisie was unaware a mother ewe might perceive her as a threat to the lamb. The ewe knew instinctively the lamb was safe with the child. Child and animal were mirrors to each other - clean, like clear water, a part of the grand interconnected web of life, and wonderful teachers of kinship. Her younger siblings were evolving out of childhood, but Maisie was at zero, one with nature.
These photos are motifs of shared innocence between animals and children, and a prayer for us to return to where we began, for when we exist with the purity of that first light, we are nurtured in response, not as a transaction but as natural symbiosis, as naturally unfolding phenomena.
Contrary to tradition, I will end my entry to the members blog by introducing myself.
I am a UK based photographer, of Indian origin. I studied photography at University of the Arts London at the postgraduate level, before completing an MA in photography at UCA, Rochester in 2010. My early work was elaborately staged, it had surrealistic tones, mostly imagined through the whimsy of daydreams, and inspired by Freudian theories. I regularly photographed fashion for Vogue India and other leading fashion publications. Gradually, owing to personal experiences of existential pain and suffering, I started narrating real life stories, firmly grounded in compassion and love, through a mix of portraiture, artistic and journalistic style photographs. There was a heart opening to what it meant to exist in this world as a human being. These narratives stem from my local communities in England and India, my immediate family, and my natural environment.
My work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery London, Photo London, PhotoVogue festival, and has appeared in The Guardian, and Vogue magazine several times, among other notable publications. My work is part of private and corporate art collections all over the world.
I’ve been part of the lovely Photofusion environment for about 15 years now. My first ever group exhibition was with them. At Photofusion I’ve processed and scanned most of my film, and have had my photographs printed by the skilful and knowledgable Richard. If you’d like to purchase my prints, you can catch me at Photofusion at their book fair, on Sunday 23 March, 1 to 5pm at 2 Beehive Place, Brixton, London, SW9 7QR.
Thank you. Love, Vikram.
Photos -
1. Sacred Circle
2. Friends in Red Sweaters
3. Children of my Father
4. Listen
5. The Veil
6. My Father, the Teacher
7. Children in a Tree
8. Editorial for The Financial Times
9. Editorial for Vogue India
10. The Twins and the Green Car
