The current season of spring, which has decked up the city in a riot of colourful flowers and trees especially the silk cotton tree with its fiery red flowers in full bloom, offers stunning picture opportunities for both professionals as well as the general photo hobbyist.
British photographer Tony Clancy is gearing up to showcase an exhibition that puts the spotlight on the various gardens in Delhi, which is also a topic for research for noted lensman and lecturer at University of Gloucestershire.
Clancy says he hopes to present "a refreshing view on plants and their role in cross-cultural relationships, seen through the prism of photography."
A workshop and a talk by the photographer-researcher is also scheduled later this month initiated by India Habitat Centre.
All three events, beginning March 19 are part of Habitat Photosphere - a one year-long photography festival.
"Photography is a simple enough act of looking. For both the photographer and the viewer of photographs, the world is experienced visually, a glimpse of reality transmitted through the sense of sight," says Clancy.
The workshop, led by Clancy and Anita Roy is set to look at examples of extracts from short essays that bring fresh insight into photographs, then set a series of practical exercises based around the 'Garden Underground Exhibition' at the Jor Bagh metro station -- three panels of photographs by Clancy, Arati Kumar-Rao and Juhi Saklani.
In his photographs, Clancy explores the complex and intertwined history of humans and plants through paintings, photography and cultural history.
"Gardens transform environments for better and for worse. This exhibition brings a small oasis to the depths of the metro system, where passing passengers can enjoy images that evoke the pleasures and spectacle of gardens," he says.
Clancy's images include those taken both in the UK and India.
Bengaluru-based environmental photographer Arati
Kumar-Rao explores the unique desert garden around Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, where a 70 hectare original garden has been restored.
Travel photographer Juhi Saklani looks at the workers whose often hidden labour and wealth of knowledge and experience actually make the gardens enjoyable.
A talk titled 'Framing Nature: Gardens and Art in History' by writer and critic Anita Roy and art historian Alka Pande besides Clancy is set to explore the relationship between the built environment and natural spaces - and their intersection in the form of the garden.
According to organisers, the speakers will look at how plants have been represented in art by painters since the 1500s and by photographers since the 1840s, looking in particular at contemporary images, and examine - through images what gardens reveal about the people who created them.
