Dreams, Solitude and Silence: Introducing Satyakam Biswas
Written by Oliver Squirrell
Let’s face it, modern life can be a succubus of stress. Even in the absence of a pandemic we’re pushed to the limits of what’s bearable as our spirit, dreams and natural human nature find themselves seduced by the din of daily demands and the never-ending noise of global news feeds.
For the last few years however, the work of Mumbai-based photographer Satyakam (Sat) Biswas has provided us with more than mere escape; his visual storytelling offers a divine transition into a simpler state of being where free imagination, deep reflection and calming contemplation rule the roost.
Inspired by mythology, nature, literature and cinema, much of Sat’s work has this pronounced meditative quality, daring us to dream once more in the serenity of soft summer silence.
In an exclusive interview we find out more about the man behind the myth.
Satyakam Biswas, “The Myth of Sisyphus”, 2020
OS: Hi Sat, thank you for taking the time to chat with us. How did your fascination with photography first begin?
SB: My fascination with photography began at a very early stage. I think I was around seven years old when I first got a camera (Yashica I think), from a distant uncle of mine who was posted in Russia/England as a diplomat. I believe my interests for photography came from a lot of sources: My Uncle who used to send me postcards with photographs in it, nature/outlook magazines in the house, my grandfather’s love for his Rolleiflex, my surroundings in the old sleepy mountain town and mostly my love for cinema.
Later on, in my youth, my love for poetry, politics, cinema and a penchant to articulate them made my love for photography grow.
OS: A lot of your images have a dream-like quality both in the aesthetic and ideas, could you talk us through the importance of dreaming within your work?
SB: I grew up in a very small quaint hilly town and for a long time the idea of imagination or dreams played a very strong part in my consciousness, which has always stayed with me. The idea of Solitude, Silence, Strangeness and Infinity shaped my boyhood. And more so when my world changed and I came into contact with large cities full of noises and chaos and everything so large. I was not particularly happy and always wanted to go back to the unperturbed world of my childhood days!
Satyakam Biswas, “Dreams - The Hidden journey, Book of Tea”, 2020
There’s this conflict which is still there; between yesterday & today, between a mind & a body, between an abject reality of space & a love for the unknown and that does not exist and might never exist and equally exist in another dimension of my existence. And that I refer to as My DREAMS!
Satyakam Biswas, “Dreams - Evanascence, Book of Tea”, 2020
And this found a voice through my photography, which again found an expression from my curiosity and my study of metaphysics and philosophical & artistic movements like Surrealism (Dali, Ernst, Joan Miro, Frida Kahlo, Man Ray, Stanley Kubrick, Dora Maar, Claude Cahun, Roman Polanski), Symbolism (Kafka, Renoir, Camus, Seimus Heaney, Kiarostami, Joyce), Deconstruction (Sartre, Derida, Harry Callahan, Moholy Nagy Laszlo, Kieslowski), Lyrical Abstraction (Aaron Siskind, Wolfgang Tillmans, Gustav Klimt) and Magic Realism ( Satyajit Ray, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Akira Kurosawa, Felini, Neruda, Lee Friedlander).
Satyakam Biswas, “Three Colours Dream - Blue”, 2020
OS: Similarly, myth, literature (notably The Book Of Tea) and nature also feature prominently in your work, how do these themes inspire your practice?
SB: I have thought about it in depth. And I have come to the conclusion that it has an original landscape into the way I have shaped from boyhood until now. My growing years were quaint and quiet and full of silence and solitude and yet I have spoken a lot, with myself and with the arrangements that were a part of me and my being.
And my arrangements included a lot of books, inanimate objects and nature! They especially displayed my love for magic and the magical world, the world of Wiccans, the Folklores, the mountains and its mystique, the world of fairies and demons, the world of light & darkness and mostly the world of nature where everything has a meaning, a symmetry and a deep connection to our existence! Mostly what fascinates me to date is how nature is deeply evolving and changing us, without us being truly appreciative of that.
Satyakam Biswas, “The Mountain & Him”, 2020
Later on my deep connection with Tribal people, their art, their living, their faiths, their customs, their expressions, their languages, their arts, their morality and immoralities, their inherent relationships with themselves and nature have all had a deep influence on me as a person and my thought process.
My curiosity to understand civilisations and specifically Indian, Japanese, Romans & Greek and its deep roots and pathways into the post-modern evolution of popular culture, have lead me to study ancient religion, literature, art, music and philosophy and those which helped me build a construct for my expression and for that matter photography!
Satyakam Biswas, “Hecate - A transliteration of a Myth”, 2020
A select number of intellectuals from the cinematic world have always dominated my work and thinking, like Satyajit Ray, Akira Kurosawa, Frederico Felini, Vittorio De Sica, Renoir, Polansky, Bergman, Kubrick, Yasujiro Ozu, Kieslowski etc from the world of cinema.
Likewise, from the world of literature I have had a great influence from Sophocles, Dante, Shakespeare, Tagore, Yeats, John Dunne, Joyce, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Neruda and Lorca.
But the two most important people who have cast a lifelong impression on my work of photography in the last 10 years are Kakuzo Okakura, the author of Book of Tea, and Junichiro Tanizaki, the author of In Praise of Shadows!
Satyakam Biswas, “You can Die Beautifully - Book of Tea”, 2020
OS: You produced a number of powerful works as part of ‘The Scare’ series as Covid-19 was developing throughout the world. What is the experience in India and what can we learn and take forward from the pandemic as a society and individually?
SB: To understand the effect of Covid-19 and its impact on India, we need to understand how the pandemic reshaped our world. I would like to believe that this is the first time in the post world-war world that science has come into such prominence and the world of science has come together to fight this pandemic. And never before science is so eagerly awaited and coveted for.
Satyakam Biswas, “Touch me please - Covid19 series”, 2020
And more precisely for India, as India with all its tryst towards modernity is still by and large “A conflict of Modern and Ancient.” So this conflict is evidently portrayed in its strong coexistence of science and the idea of fatalism (that which will happen will always happen and the omnipotent is the decider and not any human being or class).
Satyakam Biswas, “Life in the Times of Covid19 - Scare”, 2020
Fatalism by and large was the predominant thinking of a larger population in India while they begun to fight with Covid-19, thus making the situation on the ground far scarier and more difficult to manage. People were disregarding the outlines given by the health officials and were more inclined to deal with this pandemic through a distrust and as a notion of the wrath of God!
Satyakam Biswas, “Life in the Times of Covid19 - Talking to my Shadows”, 2020
On this context is my Scare series! My Scare of such a disregard of the sciences, the disregard of logical and scientific theories, the growing anti-Semitism (popular theories that Muslims and their congregations are the prime reasons for the growth of such pandemic) and racial hatred, the social outrage and dislocation of affected people in the society and spreading of false news intentionally through social media!
Satyakam Biswas, “Life in the Times of Covid19 - The Scare”, 2020
My idea of Scare is more towards the coming future than the present. Beyond mortality and more towards the complete breakdown of humaneness!
Satyakam Biswas, “Let the Sun Shines - Covid19 series”, 2020
OS: What do you dream for in the future for you and your photography work?
SB: Frankly I do not know. I was always unsure about my destination but to look at photography more towards my journey, a journey that will continue till the end of my being. Maybe, what propels me is my desire to remain understood and relevant with my kids as they are growing up. Maybe, through my works my kids will be able to understand the philosophical and moral journey of their father! Anything else is not thought of other than my desire to express! And possibly to be able to talk and establish connection with the people around me.
Satyakam Biswas, “I am the Nature!”, 2020
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Sat Biswas is a 45-year-old visual storyteller based out of Mumbai, one of the largest metropolises of India. Though he makes his living from IT-based Consultancy, most of his time is spent documenting the life and living around him using photography as a medium.
He has studied comparative literature. Though he has not studied art specifically as a subject, his career began with an advertising agency as a copywriter. Now these two elements have shaped his understanding of art and aesthetics. It has helped him effortlessly swim through all the creative genres and lends him an ability to compare and compose. He is greatly influenced by poetry and art of film making.
Discover more of Sat’s work at ello.co/sat1974