Theme—THIRST
DYUTIMAN MUKHOPADHYAY PHOTOGRAPHY
Thirst
The fire rushes through the veins—
Only to find the heart is frozen.
—dyutiman mukhopadhyay.
Theme—THIRST.
January 1, 2003; Chunar Fort, Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh, India; Camera—Canon FX 35 mm film SLR.
ember
UK/ˈem.bər/US/ˈem.bɚ/.
Noun [Countable noun: a noun that has a plural].
A piece of wood or coal, etc. that continues to burn after a fire has no more flames.
—https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ember.
[Context—a co-passenger in London tube most kindly gave his consent to take a closeup of his tattooed hands.]
Theme—THIRST.
January 8, 2020; Central London; Camera—Samsung M30s.
And lines not to cross before I sleep
Hope, despair and the yellow line. . .
[Courtesy: an enormous advertisement of Facebook inside a London Underground station.]
Theme—THIRST.
October 31, 2019; London, Underground Station; Camera—Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.
I won’t forget you
‘Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude.’
—Anne Frank.
Theme—THIRST.
November 12, 2019; London, Gordon Square; Camera—Samsung M30s.
Tear Torn Tossed Away
Fragments of a half-remembered dream.
Theme—THIRST.
December 3, 2019; London, Upton Park; Camera—Samsung M30s.
The burden of expectation
Inspired by the recurring motif of the Hessian sack in Bunuel’s cinematic masterpiece: That Obscure Object of Desire (1977).
Theme—THIRST.
November 9, 2019; London, Euston Square Underground; Camera—Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro).
Sunnight
Fear the light—it kills the illusion—
Rear the night.
—dyutiman mukhopadhyay.
Theme—THIRST.
January 9, 2020; London, University College London, Gordon Square; Camera—Samsung M30s.
To give back the memories
Editing ‘Devdas’ to create a database of experimental stimuli to study cultural models of self and social appraisal through films.
‘Devdas‘ (2002); Dir. Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
Title adapted from the scene: ‘Giving back the memories ’ (YouTube).
Screen scene: First meeting or clasping the bumblebee (YouTube).
Theme—THIRST.
December 13, 2018; London, University College London, PALS office; Camera—Samsung Galaxy Grand 2.
Inter-Twined with a Hyphen
‘Inter’ (verb)—to bury a dead body.
‘Intertwine’ (verb)—twist together so as to become inseparable.
‘Hyphen’ (noun)—a punctuation mark used to join words, and to separate syllables of a single word.
‘Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.’
—Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi (13th-century Persian poet).
Theme—THIRST.
October 2008; Calcutta, Camera—Nikon FM-10 35 mm film SLR.
Empire of Passion
From far away—
I saw the glimpse of us—
Just for once—
Locked in embrace—
In that dark-lit room
Of the haunted-house.
And then in a trice—
I could see us no more—
Two flickering flames—
As-if we vanished—
Into thick white fog
Of cold and dark.
And I searched—
And searched—
For both of us—
As I kept on hearing—
Our moans and cries
Of pain and pleasure.
—dyutiman mukhopadhyay.
Tribute to Rabindranath Tagore’s Bengali short story—’The Hungry Stones’ (Bengali: Kshudhita Pashan) written in 1895.
The title is inspired by the French-Japanese film ‘Empire of Passion (愛の亡霊, Ai no Bōrei, 1978)’ produced, written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima, based on a novel by Itoko Nakamura.
Theme—THIRST.
Poem: November 14, 2020; Calcutta, India;
Photography: February 17, 2022; Hooghly, India.
Camera—Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.
Like a moth to a flame
Theme—THIRST.
February 24, 2021—Photomontage from pictures taken by me on November 2, 2010, at Bhuri Singh Museum, Chamba, Himachal Pradesh, India (Abhisarika Nayika, Camera—Canon Powershot A580) and on November 20, 2019; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK (Pluto carrying off Proserpina, Camera—Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro).
Sleep! My crying poems!
Sleep! my crying poems—
Sleep! sleep for now!
Sleep! till the Moon calls you at dawn;
The Sun has long woken in the musk deer’s dream—
Myrrh and frankincense of innocence—yearn;
Oh! fear not—the tear of burning Sun!
Cold! ‘tis cold! and waiting to cry—
In dark-hued nocturne!
—dyutiman mukhopadhyay.
Theme—THIRST.
Sunset, Calcutta, India.
May 30, 2021.
Camera—Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.
the eyes of the beholder
Theme—THIRST.
March 23, 2022.
West Bengal, India.
Camera—Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.
work in progress
"The frost, sometimes it makes the blade stick."
Gladiator (2000); Dir. Ridley Scott.
Theme—THIRST.
January 23, 2023.
Bangalore, India.
Camera—Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.
naïveté
“You study, you learn, but you guard the original naïveté. It has to be within you, as the desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.”
― Henri Matisse.
Theme—THIRST.
April 14, 2023.
Galibore Nature Reserve, Karnataka, India.
Artwork: Foliage, bird feather, and soil from grass with glue, ink, and watercolour on paper.
Photography: Camera—Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.
Ariadne (a genus of nymphalid butterflies)
Ancient Cretan dialect:
ari (ἀρι-) "most" adnós (ἀδνός) "holy".
Theme—THIRST.
November 03, 2023.
Bangalore, India.
Camera—Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.