Mumbai lawyer captures Banganga's surreal moments

A Mumbai-based lawyer captures water at Banganga, and all that's reflected in it for a photography exhibition

In 2014, when Mumbai-based lawyer Kedar Desai visited Banganga on a Sunday morning, all he wanted to do was put his fledgling photography skills to test. “In my profession, the work we do is analytical and doesn’t provide scope for creativity. I’m no good at art or writing. So, photography was my way of using my other faculties. Although, I was terrible at it,” chuckles the Peddar Road resident.

Kedar Desai captures the reflection of a building in the Banganga tank, Walkeshwar

The over 1,000-year-old heritage site in Walkeshwar which houses a temple, monastery, burial ground and a dhobi ghat, provided an ideal backdrop for his pictures. While capturing the egrets flying overhead with his Canon 6 D camera, Desai caught a glimpse of their reflection in the water. “For that fleeting moment, it looked surreal. Fortunately, I managed to capture it,” he reminisces. A year later, the picture of the egret’s reflection in water, along with a host of other photographs, have made it to an exhibition.

Out of the 50 photographs that Desai has shot, most are from around Banganga, while others have been shot at Girgaum Chowpatty and one at Krabi Island, Thailand. “I chose to focus on Banganga because I came across a plethora of subjects at the location. Not just birds, but even the colourful buildings that line the area looked breathtaking in the reflection when captured at a certain angle,” he says. Desai feels water has a strange power of making the mundane look dreamy. “You won’t believe it, but the ugly tarpaulin sheets that workers use to cover buildings during construction, look unreal in water as well.” The biggest challenge, he says, was avoiding the layer of dirt that often settles on its surface, especially in Mumbai. “Many a times, a perfectly captured frame would be ruined because of a plastic bag!” he says.

Desai plans to donate the proceeds from the exhibition to a school for unprivileged children in Dharavi. “This exhibition focuses on the reflections of architecture and birds. But I’m equally fascinated by people, and I’ll save that idea for my next project,” he smiles.

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