The last refuge

  • | Friday | 17th March, 2017

Although Chopra shot within these confined spaces, she abstained from publishing work where photography was not permitted or appreciated, making sure not to exploit this opportunity unfairly. Bhutan, explains Chopra, is one of the beyuls: the protected places, blessed as refuges for when the world is nearing its end. At first glance, images from Bhutan Echoes seem to be of a lost world, ancient and undiscovered and magically made, aeons ago. For Chopra herself, Bhutan turned out to be exactly that: “…the land where I was meant to be, and where I would find my way”. Serena Chopra’s photographs, head-on straight shots, are devoid of any technical gimmicks that play on angles, focus and layered content.

At first glance, images from Bhutan Echoes seem to be of a lost world, ancient and undiscovered and magically made, aeons ago. Well, that is not very far from the truth, as Bhutan for centuries had been locked away from the world, a self-proclaimed guarded empire. Serena Chopra’s photographs, head-on straight shots, are devoid of any technical gimmicks that play on angles, focus and layered content. They reflect the clarity and simplicity of its subjects and spaces. Mist-covered mountains and open pastures stretch into oblivion, creating a sense of mystery, while her subjects, clad in traditional attire, stand steady and unflinching in the fore. Bhutan, explains Chopra, is one of the beyuls: the protected places, blessed as refuges for when the world is nearing its end. For Chopra herself, Bhutan turned out to be exactly that: “…the land where I was meant to be, and where I would find my way”. This epiphany struck Chopra on a trekking trip to the country in 2002. When on Day Two, a member of the trekking group came down with altitude sickness and a mishap led to huge losses of horses and supplies, the group was forced to return to base. Chopra, then 50, had just wrapped up her flourishing textile business in the hope of returning to her two old loves: photography and writing. Armed with her then newly purchased Hasselblad, Chopra set out to explore Bhutan through lens and ink. A casual request made to her hotel owner in Thimphu turned out to be the onset of her project. Back home in Delhi a few days on, Chopra received a call from the owner confirming that she had found Chopra a guide to help her with her travels through the country. The next five years saw Chopra trek into the remotest of corners, making family-like friends along the way. “No photograph is of someone whom I don’t know well,” says Chopra. Being a woman was hardly ever a deterrent as many tribes she came across and lived with were matriarchal societies. Home to strong women, they were sexually unrestrained and often wife to two men, brothers in the same family. From protected nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes to the Queen of Bhutan herself, Chopra’s work spans a broad spectrum. Her acquaintance with the queen secured her access to monasteries, nunneries and tribal regions alike. “I was given permission to venture into regions that foreigners were restricted from…” she writes in the foreword to her book published by Tasveer. Although Chopra shot within these confined spaces, she abstained from publishing work where photography was not permitted or appreciated, making sure not to exploit this opportunity unfairly. Instead, she would often get them small gifts like their photographs, diaries or creams on request. Not wanting to shoot as just a photographer, she preferred experiencing things as “the original people”, the tribes as she describes them, saw it. Her ideal goal was to become so mundane to her surroundings that she seemed like a “part of the furniture”. Of Wangdi’s image astride a horse, which she shot in Merak village in 2004, Chopra says, “You see that look on his face? That’s an expression of familiarity”. A familiarity that grew stronger with every one of the 20-odd trips that Chopra made during this time. She timed her trips well to coincide with festival season, as that was also conducive weather for trekking. To understand a culture, it is important to grasp the ordinary and the exceptional, the obvious and the elusive. Chopra shot Bhutan at a time of transition when the country that became the youngest parliamentary democracy in the world in 2008 was slowly letting go of an earlier way of life, precious to its people. For the Bhutanese, there is a certain “consciousness of retaining their identity”, even while opening up to modernity as a society. Chopra recalls a sort of cultural police that wouldn’t think twice before ticking off someone in the street, whom they thought weren’t dressed aptly as per tradition. “It was like entering a fairyland,” she says, where an outsider really stood out distinctly. Choptra’s images of life in the cities of Thimphu and Paro, of nightclubs, salons and parlours, of youngsters dressed in jeans and noodle straps, of snooker and basketball games in progress are a far cry from her images of the forests and valleys. As a viewer, the newer documentation becomes a different show altogether. In a 2004 image of the Thimphu skyline, Chopra points out the first Taj hotel that was coming up, seen in the image as still under construction, but a sure symbolic assertion of the inevitable transformation that Bhutan was headed towards. On her 2015 visit a decade later, she found that the Bhutan she had known existed now only in her images, her journals and her memory. Bhutan Echoes is on at Pundole’s, Ballard Estate, till March 22

If You Like This Story, Support NYOOOZ

NYOOOZ SUPPORTER

NYOOOZ FRIEND

Your support to NYOOOZ will help us to continue create and publish news for and from smaller cities, which also need equal voice as much as citizens living in bigger cities have through mainstream media organizations.


Stay updated with all the Mumbai Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.

Related Articles