At Samanyashastram Gallery, photographer Kandukuri Ramesh Babu from Hyderabad is showcasing his most recent exhibit, NETA, which focuses on weavers. The performance pays homage to the unsung heroes of our culture and raises awareness of our rich traditions in handicrafts in light of India’s 75th anniversary as an independent nation. Sri Sekhar Kammula, a director of films, attended as the show’s special guest. Anuradha Bishnoi, the chairperson of Telangana’s crafts council, is a special invitee.
The show’s name, NETA, refers to the photos that were taken in prominent Telangana handloom clusters such as Pochampally, Koyyala Gudem, Gattuppal, Siripuram, Vellanki, Puttapaak, Pothireddy Palli, Alampuram, Gadwal Rajolu, Kotthapeta, Narayana pet, Siddipet, and Sircilla.
The exhibition features about 80 pictures, and it runs through November 10. In the context of the nation’s 75th anniversary of independence, the exhibition focused on the struggle of weavers by featuring pictures of weavers from these 14 different clusters.
“I urgently want to bring attention to the need for civil society’s responsibility to realise the negligence of government institutions besides the exploitation of master weavers. They need to understand that the handloom weavers receive low wages,” says Ramesh. The images depict not only the physical attributes of the workers but also the soul of the weavers, who are inextricably linked to our nation’s culture and tradition and require our collective support and encouragement to maintain our civilisation. We should also find solutions to improve the world for handloom weavers. Instead of focusing on the vast production of millions of finished garments, we need to care about the thousands of weavers that make our history possible.
“Never forget that each finished item, such as a sari, has a number of stories concealed beneath each thread, and that all art and beauty are the results of painstaking, unnoticed labour. As a result, the pictures on display reflect the weavers’ unseen, unheard, and unsung lives,” he adds.
Ramesh Babu believes in highlighting the ordinary man as a unique individual and an essential component of society. His field of study, Samanyashastram (literally, the science of common people), is one in which he has been able to convey his passion for life and his fellow human beings in a unique manner. Samanyashastram, a photo gallery in the city, was founded by Ramesh Babu and honours the straightforward, commonplace, and timeless. It naturally developed throughout the course of his career as a journalist, author, and photographer. In addition to being the name of his gallery and publication, Samanyashashastram also refers to a worldview that grew out of experiences in life as well as a creative sensibility for appreciating and embracing the ordinary.
NETA is on showcase till November 10.
At Raidurg.
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Twitter: @PaulChokita