Documenting his exploration and discovery from his travels across India, Ajay Rajgharia takes the viewer on a journey of light, shadow, nature and form in A Tale of 3 Cities – Kolkata, Goa and Mathura. The exhibition features close-up images and scenes from obscure corners of the cities, devoid of faces but signalling traces of life.

Rajgharia tells a story of these cities through stylized photographs of entities that reflect the idiosyncrasies of each city. Tactile and richly infused with colour, his images reflect the contrasting culture and lifestyle of Kolkata, Goa and Mathura. Concomitantly, as a whole, the artist reveals the hidden soul of each city apparent only to the discerning traveller, and opens a new door to a world that has been ravaged by the passage of time.

In Kolkata, a city born and bred of aristocracy, Rajgharia focuses on moments of reprieve from the hustle and bustle of city life; in Goa he finds beauty in the ordinary, preferring the old world charm of a forgotten Goa vis-a-vis its idyllic beaches; in Mathura, a city hailed as the abode of the Gods, Rajgharia uncovers haunting images of loneliness and abandonment.

Finding inspiration in the mundane and the forgotten, Ajay Rajgharia successfully weaves together an intriguing mélange of colour and texture in A Tale of 3 Cities, an alternative view of the cities that the audience might otherwise never encounter.

Image: © Ajay Rajgharia, Indigo Blue Art