Nishan Chowdhury from India is a photographer who believes that “all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.” His portfolio is a faithful representation of this sentiment.
Chowdhury works mostly with street and drama photography, depicting festivals and stage performances, as well as impromptu portraits. His use of heavy shades, light dispersion, shadowplay, and bold contrast gives the images a theatrical quality. The artist also experiments with optical illusions and composition to create negative space.
He does not shy from depicting all aspects of Indian life—from hectic city streets to rural harvest season. The world is a stage, and every person has a role to play; some are given a script, and some answer the call unprepared.
It is difficult to say what is real and what is staged, and Chowdhury does not attempt to do so. He treats with equal attention the subjects who meet his camera with challenging stares, those who hide behind masks and those entirely unaware of being photographed.
Chowdhury has a keen eye for the unpredictable, which, combined with a very good instinct for the extraordinary, manages to collect beautiful shots out of apparently ordinary and most mundane situations. A vision that can certainly make you look twice and wish to discover more.
Read our “Camouflage” issue in full
RAWGUE.’s 4th issue delved into the grey, moody, and cold atmosphere of winter. Yet it did not sink into the depths of madness or depression. Instead, it embraced this season of hibernation, allowing 31 artists from all over the world to present their timid work beneath a veil of quiet beauty.
We’re a team of writers using our craft to spotlight art in its most honest form. RAWGUE. started as a bi-monthly editorial experiment where each issue’s theme is dictated by the submitted work, thus removing editorial bias from the equation and preserving a more raw approach. We focus on all forms of poetry: written, photographed, painted, drawn, and filmed.
