Space struggles

Photographer Anshika Varma is exhibiting her latest series of pictures woven around the concept of Spazio Lotte, an Italian phrase meaning space struggles.

In her frames, you will see a fruit seller. But at the same time, you can feel the chill of refrigerated convenience stores waiting to usurp his profession. You will see a tailor but hear the machine gun drone of sweat shops growing closer. You will see a porter but smell the grease of heavy lifting machines in the periphery.  

“These images are an attempt to talk about the struggle by these occupations to maintain their space in the physical,
social and cultural structures of our lives,” she says.

Anshika has been brought up in Delhi. She remembers the time when a man with a knife sharpening wheel used to visit their house every week. “We still have the equipment for sharpening knives for the kitchen. Probably now it’s become self-operational,” she says.

In another instance she cites the example of the vegetable vendors and the potters on the streets. “In certain areas of Delhi, the government does not allow these nomadic sellers to sell their goods. It’s not an inconvenience for the common man of course, because everything we need is easily available in the grocery stores or malls,” she says.

The purpose of her exhibition is not to take sides or make judgment. “I am simply highlighting how some of the customary professions are constantly loosing ground and relevance, caught in a raging battle for space. They are also a reflection of the fact that we as humans are increasingly becoming progressive and mechanised,” she remarks.

Spazio Lotte — a series of portraits is on till June 30 at Gallery Art & Soul, Worli.