Unlikely Medleys

While in conversation with Aditya Nair, Conchita Fernandes discovers the qualities that instigate a sense of confoundment with his photographs.

There’s a certain mystery, absurdity and surprise lurking beneath the surface of the ordinary or commonplace. It begins with recognition and then skepticism about something in the scene being not quite right. It is this feeling that allows us to attend to and question the setting—“Is it meant to look like this?” “Where the mystery is the deepest is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful,” Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher and writer had said. Aditya Nair’s visuals reflect these qualities.

Over the years, photographers have interpreted the commonplace in myriad ways. From pictures acting as straightforward documents of the subject’s existence within its surrounding, to photographs that reveal illogical but intriguing juxtapositions—Aditya’s vision oscillates somewhere in the midst of this. “Speaking as a card-carrying member of the highly distractible society, if something makes me do a spit-take and look twice, it is worth photographing once,” he says.

Seeing Beyond Surprise