This cop-turned-artist from Karnataka created his own photo studio to travel back in time with his mother

There were no mobile phones at the time and the possession of a camera was out of the question. Shiva’s dream of taking photos with her mother has remained hidden in the back of her mind for decades. Visiting the houses of others, he felt a bite of sadness when he saw family photos covering the walls. Finally, in 2017, the now 46 years (“” “just 46 ”, he said) sought to remedy this lack of documentation by working on a series of photo performance with his mother.

Currently exhibited at the Sumukha gallery in Bengaluru and organized by Joshua Muyiwa, More a memory Combines nostalgia for old -fashioned studio photo albums with the theaters of folk pieces played in rural India. On an image, Shiva and her mother gave colorful costumes and wear square televisions on his head, putting back when a young shiva swore that he would steal television from the rich family of their village for her. In another photo, they present themselves as a duo of hunting fugitives. They are a Muslim wife dressed in Mogra in a floral backdrop in a photo, and Shiva is dressed in Yamraj, the Hindu God of Death, in another. While the series presents a social commentary – by twisting the secularism of Ramanagara, the village in which Shiva grew up (and Shore Fame), the ambitious nature of a job in the police, television and the Samsonite suitcase which were once symbols of elite status – he approaches these subjects with an endearing play. There is joy and warmth on each photograph featuring the mother-son duo, an excitement to finally create the photo album they always want.