A Sarthak Chauhan Photoseries Captures The Poetry In Fleeting Moments Of Tenderness

Sarthak Chauhan is a filmmaker, writer and photographer based in New Delhi. Sarthak uses his eye for the aesthetically extraordinary and his passion for storytelling to create visual narratives that relay the complexity of human emotion and existence. We recently spoke to Sarthak about a recent photo project - 'flowers, faces and façades'.

Could you tell us more about the story you were trying to tell with 'Flowers, Faces & Facades'?

'flowers, faces and facades' is basically an attempt to appreciate the beauty that is lost in liminal experiences such as deja vu and translations and lost interpretations and dreams: like how the folds on the skin of one's back resemble a rose and how a pair of lovers caressing each other share similarity with two flowers blooming together.

Through an array of juxtapositions, I wanted to portray the short lived experiences that come together and fall apart and reiterate themselves all at the same time; be it the glance of a stranger, the brief touching of two hands or the daily rituals of performance that we don't realise we are a part of. The pictures, through a compilation of obscured faces and flowers waiting to wilt, strive to create the movement that poetry makes and how with each line certain experiences, that are confined to brevity, are instead given a room to breathe and remain for a little longer.

How do you conceptualize and bring your photoseries and editorials to life so vividly?

As a visual artist and a filmmaker, I rely primarily on my interior monologue during the ideation process. It involves a bunch of scribbles and rough sketches and some rudimentary pictures until all of it starts coming together into one singular idea. I look for people whom I can document. Queer people. Lovers. The ones who look away from the camera and the ones who gaze back. The process becomes more rich and abundant during my conversations with my subjects and the story that they want to tell or rather, show. I think that gives way to my purpose of creating too; to document people and tell stories without losing any of it to translations.

What are some things that have had the biggest impact on your work as a creative?

I think the very idea of storytelling has always been an influence, no matter how obvious or cliche it sounds. I remember this one classroom interaction I had with one of my Professors when I was pursuing my masters in literature, when he asked us, "Why do we need literature, or any artistic practice for that reason?" and the first thing that crossed my mind, which I also blurted out in from of the whole class, was that we need to tell stories.

We, as humans, have always had the insatiable urge to tell and listen to stories, from the prehistoric age to our time: human experiences; all human experiences, must be narrated and heard. This very idea that compels me to document and tell stories has always been a massive influence in my artistic journey.

What did this project teach you? Was there anything specific that you took away from the process of putting all of this together?

We can never truly understand certain experiences, and maybe we are not meant too. But we can always preserve them like one preserves dried flowers and polaroids and revel in the multitude of interpretations these experiences bring.

Are there any specific homegrown artists whose work has had an impact on yours? What do you like the most about the work that they do?

Lately, I have been obsessing over the works of Shilo Shiv Suleman and Imdad Barbhuyan and how they find this sort of symmetry between the human body and nature as well as the symbolism they incorporate in each of their works. Other visual artists I adore are Anurag Bannerjee and Any Kumar and how they portray the grandness of the human condition through the simplest of gestures that manifest in their works.

What's a project you wish you could've helped create?

Honestly, either a film by Kiran Rao or any campaign for Bhavya Ramesh Jewellery.

You can follow Sarthak here.

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