ParulScape: Photographer Parul Sharma imbues everyday objects with rhythm

In her debut exhibition, photographer Parul Sharma imbues everyday objects with rhythm and music

A  curve of a building that resembles a smooth flowing wave; a café that basks in an almost other-worldly glow; a bridge which, with its precise geometric patterns, begins to look like a piece of installation art; a stadium that reminds one of Lego pieces — photographer Parul Sharma’s images imbue everyday objects and architecture with rhythm and music, prodding the viewer to look beyond the obvious.

One is free to form one’s own meaning around these images, unfettered by captions or artist’s notes. This allows Sharma’s work to grow and evolve further, taking on different lives. A building, which may seem like a stern of a ship to me, could look like a cold grey castle tower, looming into the cloudy skies to another. “ParulScape”, which is Sharma’s debut photography exhibition, features 40 such images taken over 14 years of travel when she was the spokesperson of Star India — a job she quit recently. As she would travel from city to city across the world, Sharma would spend a lot of time gazing at streets and urban architecture. “Some four to five years ago, I started taking photographs on my phone. A friend, who is an editor-author, told me that I should exhibit these and call it, ‘On My Way to Work’,” she says.

I ask her if it was a conscious decision to focus solely on black-and-white photography. “I started with colour, but then it took a direction of its own,” she says. Her images stand out for their shadowplay, lending a mystical aura to the subjects. For Sharma, this aspect is important, as shadow play creates a sense of seamlessness. “Shadows are very lyrical and poetic,” she says. Her inspirations lie in the two very contrasting art movements of Bauhaus and deco. “The former is very linear and full of straight lines. Deco, on the other hand, is very curvaceous and stylish,” she adds. 

Sharma can trace her fascination with architecture to her childhood, which she spent in Gole Market. “I was born in an old Lutyens bungalow. My mother is from old Delhi, which is the complete antithesis of Gole Market. I grew up watching a lot of diverse architectural spaces. That left an imprint and is manifesting itself now,” she says. Also, she did a long stint in Europe, where her friends hailed from the art world. That exposed her to a lot of modern and traditional art as well.

Over the years, her work has elicited positive reactions from friends and acquaintances. However, it was only recently that she acquired the confidence to exhibit her images. “I was in Mumbai recently and was driving down the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. You are not allowed to stop there. Thankfully, the car, which my office had sent, had a sun roof, so I opened that and took a lot of pictures,” she says. Sharma soon realised that even though people pass by this structure daily, they don’t realise that it’s such a thing of beauty.

As soon as she uploaded the images on Facebook, she got a message from advertising guru, Swapan Seth. “He asked if these were my images and that they were lovely,” she says. It was on Seth’s insistence that she decided to finally exhibit her work at Bikaner House. He has also curated the show. “There is a lovely saying that if it makes you scratch your head, it’s art,” says Seth about Sharma’s images. “The Sea Link has been photographed 18.5 million times, but no one has captured it the way she has. I like simplicity, a certain sense of nakedness. Her photos have that; there are no pretensions in her images. She has seen beauty in everyday objects.”

‘ParulScape’ will be showcased at Bikaner House, Delhi, till July 30, 2017