Eloquence in Silence

Conchita Fernandes revels in the simple and silent photographs of Mitul Kajaria, as he discusses his thoughts with her.

Silence is often mistaken to be the absence of something, which leads people to automatically dismiss its existence or need. Writer Chaim Potok thinks otherwise, and has reflected on this aspect in his book The Chosen.

“I’ve begun to realise that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and dimension of its own.” His words have remained with me for a while, and only recently was I reminded of them when I came across Mitul Kajaria’s photographs.

Being drawn to the Abstract

Mitul’s imagery does not however, encapsulate the bleak silence that Potok was referring to. His is a more tranquil rendition, within which, if you look closer, you will find delicate nuances… a pole running across the image or a tendril slowly creeping from the corner of the frame; these are all elements that he encountered during his commute to work, or while travelling.

This distinct way of seeing was a result of a gradual process that began a few years ago, when he was studying architecture in college. “I had managed to get my own camera, and a lot of what I was shooting comprised of geometric patterns, abstracts and shadows. When I shared the work with people around me, I was told that I had an eye for this, and so, continued shooting,” he said.

When the Moment Finds You