The world of gardens

Gardening is considered a wonderful hobby that also helps in providing beautiful and bountiful surroundings to enjoy. With flowering red roses and tomatoes trailing their way up posts or railings, gardening helps in putting people at ease. And experts believe that the burst of fresh air and plants doesn’t hurt either. British photographer Tony Clancy, under the patronage of Habitat Photosphere — a year-long photography festival at the centre, presents an exhibition, workshop and talk focusing on plants and their role in cross-cultural relationships, seen through the prism of photography.

The exhibition titled “The Garden Underground” features works by three photographs — Tony Clancy, Arati Kumar-Rao and Juhi Saklani, and explores the complex and intertwined history of humans and plants through paintings, photography and cultural history. “Photographed in both India and the UK, the pictures open up a dialogue between East and West, tropical and temperate, between those who create and tend for gardens and those who come to enjoy them. It’s both about gardens and gardening,” shares Tony and adds, “We wanted to bring a sense of the pleasure associated with gardens to an underground station. People are usually in a hurry and distracted by so many thoughts and concerns when travelling round a city. We wanted to make an oasis of sorts. The station itself was always where we wanted this work to be. And if it gives a message too about creating and protecting a better environment, I will be happy about it.”

The workshop led by Tony and Anita Roy, will look at examples of extracts from short essays that bring fresh insight into photographs, then set a series of practical exercises based around the exhibition. They will both read from their own writings and discuss their own writing processes.

“Plants are beautiful in themselves. We wanted to find some new ways of looking at, and thinking about gardens. We all see gardens a lot, most people enjoy them, but we wanted to look again at their rich history, and what they mean to the environment and those who work in these environments. One of the starting points for this entire curatorial approach was a piece of writing about gardens by Anita Roy, so writing and reflecting are important aspects of the workshop. We will also talk about a few ways to think about writing about both gardens and photographs, and end with a photographic walk to Jor Bagh metro station and look at the exhibition. In the end, we will invite the group to contribute writing and images to a blog we are setting up for the project,” explains Tony.

He says, “Photography is a simple enough act of looking. For both the photographer and viewer of photographs, the world is experienced visually, a glimpse of reality transmitted through the sense of sight. Vast amounts of information are apprehended in fractions of a second, grabbed by the camera for the eye to consume. Of course, nothing is ever so simple. Images are only a starting point for an infinite number of conversations — with oneself, with others — where meanings and aesthetics are shared, agreed, debated, refuted. The strange, highly complex illusions that live within the frame of the photograph, in the end need language to begin to unravel them.”