Arakkal: Bridging generations

“Teach your children well... feed them on your dreams The one they picks, the one you’ll know by..

” Shibu Arakkal, who sees the world through his mind’s eye has finally realised that what drives him to strive for perfection in an increasingly imperfect world, is an acknowledgement that he is his father’s son as much as his daughter’s father. 

“I have avoided this answer for 23 years but now I realise my driving force is simply to leave an artistic legacy for my daughter, just as my father did for me,” said Shibu Arakkal, India’s lauded photo artist.  And son of the artist and colossus, Yusuf Arakkal. 

The young Arakkal launched his new website in Canada this week, as part of the international group exhibition ‘Water for Life’ at the Niagara Falls History Museum. For Arakkal, his self and his work are synonymous. “What you see in my work is what occupies my mind space which is mostly a philosophical kind of a dwelling, to stay true to my ideas and stay unique because art is all about uniqueness today.” 

While Arakkal’s new website showcases his work through pinhole, digital, iPhone, polaroid, and all other formats that he has worked with; a special section, ‘Bridging Brooklyn’, highlights his work through large format pinhole camera. 

Captured in a single shot, the photograph of the bridge is spectacular. “I act purely out of my instinct and years of experience. Choosing my photograph is a very subconscious trigger and I have to be sensitively tuned to understand that. I put every experience of my life into that one shot. I won’t know what I am going to take but once I have, I know what I have taken,” said the artist.