An Actor Prepares

Naveen Kishore. Performing the Goddess. Digital print on archival paper. 20" x 30". Edition 2 of 5. 1999. Image courtesy of the artist and Chatterjee & Lal.

- Neha Mitra

Naveen Kishore's solo shows The Green Room at Mumbai's Chatterjee & Lal goes behind the scenes and gets under the skin of a performance to explore the negotiations between mortality and divinity, gender and its fluidity, a man and his goddess.

Shot mostly on analogue Nikon cameras, the show, mounted from the gth of July to the 29th of August, comprises two series of photographs - Performing the Goddess and The Green Room of the Goddess. The film Performing the Goddess captures the journey of an actor assuming a role that will mark his life and transform it.

Renowned as the initiator of Seagull Books, Kishore started to work on theatre productions in the early 1970s and has since made this the stage for his photography. He has documented female impersonators from Manipur, Bengal and Punjab and his interest in street photography has expanded his oeuvre.