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 Ever imagined sleep can be art? To Vinoth Kumar, a young
photographer in Chennai, sleep is nirvana and the theme of his
latest photo exhibition held at Alliance Françoise on College
Road, Chennai.
“Art is… what you feel or something you see, listen…
everything,” says Vinoth Kumar, a gifted photographer. “It is
all about the freedom of thinking and visualising…something very
independent,” he says.
Theme-named ‘Nirvana’, his collection of photographs from the
roads in Varanasi to our very own Village Road in Nungambakkam
exhibited at Alliance Francoise, Chennai, depicts people in
slumber... a state of instant nirvana, he discloses. “It is only
when we sleep that we tend to forget everything — even
ourselves, almost in a state of nirvana which we cannot
otherwise experience in our daily lives. This is a secret world
that escapes reality.”
 His shots speak a lot about life and the
mysteries of time explained through sleep. “Timing is very
important,” Vinoth says. “Where and when people sleep is what I
have captured through my lens.” And it sure does highlight
lighter moments of life… in every sense.
The bold use of colours is something to watch out for. “Colours
are beautiful and photography is my means of capturing them and
spreading it to the world,” he opines. “There is colour even in
black and white,” he says.
 Hailing from Tiruvannamalai, even as a young boy, Vinoth was
very interested in documentary movies that described true lives
rather than the fictitious world created by the likes of cinema
personalities. His first pictures were the ones that he took
with the camera his uncle lent him. Strongly affected by various
exhibitions like that of the Bhopal gas tragedy and the
Kumbakonam fire, Vinoth oriented his approach to photography
towards the testimony of life, especially the poetry of life.
 He decided that what he wanted to do was to travel throughout
India and meet people, especially the poor, whose emotions he
feels and translates by capturing the harmony and the serenity
in images. Vinoth Kumar did Visual Communication from New
College, Chennai, and went on to freelance as a photographer for
‘Madras Plus’ and later, ‘India Today’ that gave him ample
opportunities to pursue his passion.
 His exhibition, ‘Nirvana’, at Alliance captures people in sleep…
on the roads, on a bench, at work… “These sleepers arrested in
their immobility, carry in them a message if not that of nirvana
then at least a hope of a happy abandon of their difficulties
during their sleep,” Vinoth reasons. All his photographs yell
out messages at the viewer, social messages at that. Nirvana was
one of the themes that Vinoth planned on and started work for,
unlike his most other works which are just a click at the
moment.
Of Vinoth and his Nirvana, what can be said is… though they lack
professionalism, the ‘freaky’ shots have had the desired effect
on the public!
Padma Venkatraman
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