Cinema One

                                                         
                             


                                               Still from the film Uski Roti

                                                       Directed by Mani Kaul





                                                      An Objective Image

A photographed image, either static or moving does not lend itself to any specific  meaning  by  itself. It is just a mirror image of what is in front of the camera/viewer. In that sense it is benign. If an image has an apparent meaning or a story it is the projection of the photographer or the director's mind who is behind the photographed image. In such a case the image is so arranged by the photographer /director that it acquires a specific meaning the visualizer wants the viewer to receive. How much of that meaning gets conveyed to the receiver depends on the quality of the communicating skill of the visualizer and in equal measure the comprehending capacity of the viewer.

If an image is objectively rendered, it leaves a poetic space between the viewer and the image. Such an image does not impose on the beholder a specific meaning or leave a dramatic impact. Such an image will leave sufficient space in the viewer's mind  for interpretation. Such an interaction between the image and the viewer would lead to a higher creative  meaning leading to a two way communication,thereby enhancing the creative level of the work. How the creator arrives at such an interpretation or rendering of a given reality or a story would depend on the creative process the artist has  gone through.The choice of a particular way of projecting a given reality of course lies in the creator's ability to arrive at a precise interpretation of the given reality as intended. 

        
                                             Vishnu Mathur
                                           October 29, 2015,
                                                  Mumbai