This work is inspired by the opening scene in Jean Luc- Godard’s Le Mépris and the Billie Holiday song, I’ll be seeing you. Katragadda’s persistent and intense rumination on the expressions and registers of love – through the protagonist, his wife, comes surging to the fore in this series, envisioned originally as a book. It is about ways of seeing’ one’s lover, the desire and heartache of “looking for” the elusive other in a world which rarely allows the time to deeply pursue relationships, and one bound so closely to virtual encounters, likes, and dislikes. He sees the landscape of her – her body as a geography flush with earthen and ethereal qualities which are carefully explored, excavated, and archived for their organic essence but also a psychological traversing wherein identity, memory, and desire draw their strength from a burning, forceful engagement.

This is, in fact, the second stage of the project, wherein his wife decided to take control of the narrative, often deciding the manner of her own representation, working through the photographer as a conduit. Using text to describe her emotions, some even directly related to the images, while others respond to their atmosphere and the feeling that they generate. Through erasures, defacements, and bruising the surface of the image, she converts the photographs into a series of self-reflective composites. Her memories intersect and rupture the sanctity of linear time, as the presence of past, or lost lovers ebbs to the surface haunting the very the interstices that make life a temporal and spatial complex, layering her current relationship through lived and imagined experiences.

Harikrishna Katragadda’s work explores communities, environment, and personal memories using long-term documentary approach. He received the Invisible Photographer Asia Art Award in 2018 for his work on the Ganga river pollution using Cyanotypes.

Shweta Upadhyay is a writer and an artist working with photographs. She employs erasure and defacement using text and fragments from her personal diary, poetry, literature, and cinema. She works as the Assistant Editor of ART India Magazine.

All images from the series I’ll Be Looking at the Moon But I’ll Be Seeing You. 2018. Laser print on cartridge paper. 29.7cm x 42cm.
 

Watch Harikrishna and Shweta talk about I’ll be Looking at the Moon but Seeing you:

 

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Harikrishna Katragadda’s (@hari.katragadda) work explores communities, environment, and personal memories using a long-term documentary approach. He received the Invisible Photographer Asia Art Award in 2018 for his work on the Ganga river pollution using Cyanotypes. Shweta Upadhyay (@byshweta) is a writer and an artist working with photographs. She employs erasure and defacement using text and fragments from her personal diary, poetry, literature, and cinema. She works as the Assistant Editor of ART India Magazine. This work arises out of a collective experience, inspired by the opening scene in Jean Luc- Godard’s Le Mépris and the Billie Holiday song, I’ll Be Seeing You. Katragadda’s persistent and intense rumination on the expressions and registers of love – through the protagonist, his wife, comes surging to the fore in this series, envisioned originally as a book. It is about ways of seeing’ one’s lover, the desire and heartache of “looking for” the elusive other in a world which rarely allows the time to deeply pursue relationships. Images featured in this video may differ from the PIX edition. (Cover image by Yashna Kaul).

A post shared by PIX (@enterpix) on May 2, 2020 at 8:00am PDT