Capturing faith through camera

Hemant Chaturvedi, who has spent more than three decades in the film industry as a cinematographer, also harbours a passion for still photography. It was when he was cataloguing his work that he realised all his journeys have a coincidental connection to faith.

This hindsight was the inspiration behind the talk —‘Places of Faith—Finding belief through a camera’ hosted by Junoon as part of their ‘Mumbai Local’ series on November 13 at Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Byculla, Mumbai. He took the audience through a series of monochrome photographs shot at Lonar near Aurangabad, churches in Ethiopia, the Kumbh Mela of 2013 and Mount Kailash.

What stayed with you about the religion or faith after visiting these places?

When you’re used to having distasteful experiences at temples where it seems your blessings are measured in terms of how much money you have, the thing that strikes you immediately when you journey through Tibet to Kailash is how much of an individual spiritual experience it is. You go there with your own mental and physical strength, you achieve it based on just that and you come back enriched. There is no temple, no pandit, no havan and no monetary exchange except the tour operator that you’ve paid.

Kumbh Mela

In Ethiopia I learnt a lot about the history and commitment they’ve shown to Christianity. It’s apparently the first country to adopt Christianity as a religion which is as far back as the 1st century AD. They practice Coptic Christianity so their church comes under the Orthodox Christian churches. They have priests, crosses and incense, a lot of ritualistic activities which I learnt all about along with the architecture. Witnessing the skeleton of Lucy was a moving and emotional moment. The thought of her being the first humanoid, the closest relative of a human being as we know them today was discovered in Ethiopia. She is the mother of everyone, all of us on the planet share a gene with that skeleton.

The more you say about the Kumbh Mela, the less you can get across. It’s just an infinite space of calm and purpose. All you hear is the sound of clothes rustling and feet walking on the mud path. To have an individual purpose in a crowd of around 30 million people on a given day is quite something.

Ethiopia

You mentioned you are not particularly religious, how did these experiences influence you as a person and photographer?

You may not be religious or practice a particular faith but sometimes you’re just driven by the faith of other people. Being amongst people who have that tremendous concentration and commitment to a thought is fascinating. When you walk through Kailash and see those people doing 24-hour parikramas and 30-day parikramas, wearing broken leather shoes, locally woven woollen shawls, exposed to the elements and doing it in the most difficult way. Sometimes you feel so stupid because we need all these physical crutches to be able to achieve something that another person is doing by the strength of their mind. I’ve got a lot of confidence in my own abilities by watching them and participating in what they do.

Lonar

Your photos show how mesmerised you were by Kailash. Was it the landscape, the mythological and religious significance or a combination of both?

It was a combination of a lot of things. When you step back and look at it, it’s just a mountain in a range of mountains which is the biggest on the planet.

Mount Kailash

But how mythology and history can add value to a physical space, you stand there and you think of all the stories you’ve grown up hearing. That’s what gets you coupled with the fact that when you’re in situations like this, your own lack of importance on the planet dawns upon you. You realise that the only thing you can do is have a good experience and share it with people who may not be in the position to have that same experience.