Theme—Alone

DYUTIMAN MUKHOPADHYAY PHOTOGRAPHY

When Vincent and Edvard haunt me in the night.

Theme—Alone.

December 19, 2019; London, Upton Park; Camera—Samsung M30s.

Artistic rendering: Adobe Photoshop CC

I took this picture being Inspired by a scene in Andrei Tarkovsky's ‘Mirror’, 1975. Tarkovsky, whom I regard as the greatest filmmaker of all time, shaped my spiritual approach to art which is liberated from the prison of intellect—especially his concept of time-pressure—using which he prayed through his films and tried to comprehend the meaning of existence.

The following poem is my effort to translate an excerpt from a haunting Bengali-song 'Aaloshyo (idleness)' written by Anupam Roy and sung by Surangana Banerjee in the film 'Uma ' (2018) which goes with the heart of this image:

In those summer morn—

The curtain swayed—

Gently swayed—

And made me float. . .

Gently float. . .

The eyes—

Still lulled me to sleep—

The bed—

Still held me deep—

And the tender breeze—

Rocked me on. . .

And on. . .

As if then my mind woke up—

In a distant wonderland—

Like balls of cotton—

In the unknown blue—

You can—

You can hang on a little more—

I am almost there. . .

You can't—

Can't close your eyes—

Not yet. . .

I am near. . .

There’re still so many deep breaths to take.

—Translated by dyutiman mukhopadhyay.

Theme—Alone.

October 8, 2010; Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India; Camera—Canon PowerShot A580.

P.S. ‘In the grass’ is a painting by Arthur Hughes (1864 – 1865).

Theme—Alone.

September 16, 2019; South Bank, London; Camera—Canon EOS 60D DSLR.

Valentine’s Day 2019 (1/2).

The derelict architecture of the once famous West Pier in Brighton, England—burnt, destroyed and now closed and forgotten.

Theme—Alone.

February 14, 2019; Brighton, UK; Camera—Canon EOS 60D DSLR.

Valentine’s Day 2019 (2/2).

The derelict architecture of the once famous West Pier in Brighton, England—burnt, destroyed and now closed and forgotten.

The title is inspired by Andrey Zvyagintsev’s film Loveless (2018).

Theme—Alone.

February 14, 2019; Brighton, UK; Camera—Canon EOS 60D DSLR.

Gently—so gently—with care

He curled up in bed,

And the mourning forest said—

‘Crawl back to your shell’,

Oh, bed!—snug and warm;

He tugged, hugged her close

And I crawled into bed,

Oh, bed!—of barbed wire;

He slithered through her sleep,

She writhed in her dream,

Barbs—stinging my purulent sores,

Steaming them, until just tender;

And her wonder eyes opened

Still floating in longing dream,

With lonely molten frozen tears

I smelled my burning scars,

Barely going through the motions

Hustling old habits, he asked—

Do I feel the pain?

Half conscious—numb in cold?

'Who are you thinking of?'

Deep breaths—I'm almost there,

Yet to reach—though near;

 With lies—lies—more lies—

 Through the night's darkest hue,

 Only once, could she say—

 'Not you'.

by dyutiman mukhopadhyay.

Theme—Alone.

February, 2021; West Bengal, India; Camera—Samsung M30s.

The title is inspired by the 2003 film by Andrey Zvyagintsev.

Theme—Alone.

Shot on April 28, 2022, in Bengaluru, India.

Camera—Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.

Inspired by a flute cover of Elvis Presley’s Can't Help Falling in Love by @ReedsCover (YouTube)

Photomontage.

Theme—Alone.

Photographs taken on 17th and 29th February 2024.

Camera—Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.

“Why have you come now?

It’s pointless to question these things.

I ‘am here… in this moment

Because I have always been here in this moment.

And so have you.

You have light in you, Jibril…

But God is going to ask some hard things of you.

I’am ready.”

— from Eposode 1 of the American Netflix series ‘Messiah’ (2020), created by Michael Petroni.

Theme—Alone.

Photograph: December 31, 2024; Kerala, India; Camera Canon 60D DSLR.