Life On Hold: Lockdown in Shades of Grey
When he is not busy with his business schedule, avid photographer Siddharth Pai trains his lens on everyday stories in life. This series showcases Bengaluru during lockdown 2020.
By Sandeep & Gitanjali Maini Foundation
Siddarth Pai, an avid photographer, is also a patron of Sandeep & Gitanjali Maini Foundation
Siddharth Pai's passion for photography has seen him capture some moving images from everyday life. The chilling effect of lockdown made him go back to his trusted old camera. Shot stunningly in black and white, these photographs encapsulate life and people's helplessness, during the first lockdown in early 2020.
Sandeep & Gitanjali Maini Foundation, which promotes artists of various genres, has been associated with Siddharth Pai at several levels. This series of photographs has been shot on a fully manual camera, a less-practiced form of the art these days.
"I have known Sandeep and Gitanjali for years now and have admired their support of artists and their various philanthropic activities. It was an absolute pleasure to document what I consider not just a historic event but a life-changing time in everyone's life. The first lockdown of 2020 was not just a time of fear, it was also a life-changing period for many of us. I have tried to document what I saw and felt through these photographs," Siddharth Pai.
Geetanjali Sachdev
An art and design pedagogue, she has been involved in creating pedagogical frameworks for art and design curricula for the past twenty-five years at the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Bengaluru.
Geetanjali is currently completing her PhD in Art & Design from Manipal University, India, through which she is framing pedagogical approaches for plant study through art and design. The Foundation sought this academic's response to these stark images taken by the photographer.
"They are compelling and tell the story of the everyday street encounter. Siddharth’s work evokes an unnameable sense of our publicness, of our witnessing and belonging to the commons." - Geetanjali Sachdev
Last train to home by Siddharth PaiSandeep & Gitanjali Maini Foundation
Nowhere To Go
The all-but-empty platform at the Cantonment station in Bengaluru presents an unreal sight during the lockdown.
Deserted railway station by Siddharth PaiSandeep & Gitanjali Maini Foundation
Stairway to?
The stairs leading to the platforms are usually overcrowded with the onrush of people, making the emptiness here eerie.
Geetanjali Sachdev: "The photographer's use of light and shadow render a reflective mood through which to interpret urban street phenomena – which otherwise remain unconscious encounters."
Jaded & Jobless (2021-04-12) by Siddharth PaiSandeep & Gitanjali Maini Foundation
Jaded & Jobless
Daily wage labourers and migrant workers were the most hard-hit during lockdown with no means of livelihood.
Animal Kingdom (2021-04-18) by Siddharth PaiSandeep & Gitanjali Maini Foundation
Animal Kingdom
Ambling cows are a common sight on Indian streets, and this bovine probably enjoyed the traffic-free walk.
"Siddharth’s engagement with the materiality of street is visibly masculine – steel pipes, metal wires, cars, ambulances, clearing trucks, motorcycles, bicycles and men. Viewing his images felt like a meditation on scale, solitude and men."
The resting dog near the temple entrance, the sole pedestrian standing below the neon lights of the Express building, the cow ambling where cars should be in front of Imperial Court – Siddharth's intuitive juxtapositions are quiet in introducing scale and solitude as two forces of the pandemic.
All roads lead to Soudha by Siddharth PaiSandeep & Gitanjali Maini Foundation
Seat of power
The majestic Vidhana Soudha is captured in the strange and empty world that we were shuttered into, even as policemen urge the photographer to wrap up and move on during the lockdown.
Nightlife in lockdown by Siddharth PaiSandeep & Gitanjali Maini Foundation
A partly lit-up Vidhana Soudha provides some comfort during the dark and gloomy days of lockdown.
A close look at the statue of Ambedkar - a popular selfie point around the seat of power in Bengaluru - remains eerily bereft of selfie-takers.
The two images are stark and powerful. With most restaurants being shut down in the lockdown, the few migrant workers who chose to remain in the city had to rely on such mobile canteens. A lone man ventures out into the night even as most of the city has bunkered down.
"Nothing in life is black or white (quite literally). This body of work reflects my anger, fear, frustration, helplessness and so much more during a time when my belief in life was shaken to its core. I hope the starkness of these images reminds us of how precious life is and why it is important for us to live, and not just exist in this world," Siddharth Pai.
Information & images: Siddharth Pai
Text and interpretation: Geetanjali Sachdev
Additional inputs & curation: Sandeep & Gitanjali Maini Foundation
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