Keep the faith

From the ghats of Varanasi to Chhath Puja on the banks of the Ganges, photographer Nilanjan Ray’s works exhibit a varied range of rituals practised across India. For this 58-year-old banker, photography is a passion and in his latest collection titled ‘Faith — A quaint emotion’, he aimed to showcase faith as a double-edged sword. Spanning across two years, Nilanjan shot varied frames on many of his work travels and decided to do a series on religion.

He shares, “Pure faith is the kind of trust that you hold even when your rational mind says you should not. This is a double-edged sword, because at times the ability to hold a pure faith is a blessing, but sometimes it is simply blind faith in disguise.” From witchcraft in Bihar and black magic in Assam, Nilanjan has managed to tap on the essence of various communities.

Sharing a striking visual that left a long-lasting impression on him, he elaborates, “In Bihar, I witnessed a rather strange ritual. A group of people were beating a lady in a temple and later dragged her by the hair to a nearby pond, it was only much later that I was told that they were trying to exorcise the evil spirit that had possessed the lady.”

A religious faith is not a collection of people who share beliefs, he adds. “They are a community of people who have made the commitment to trust one another to care for each other’s spirits and souls, and who join together for a faith filled purpose.” Shot in black and white, just like all his pictures in the series, is a story unravelling on the banks of river Ganga in West Bengal.

“A day before the Bengali New Year, a group of ladies were crawling in the temple as a custom — they were supposed to jump over babies on their way to the Ganges for a sacred bath. There are a number of grey shades between black and white, each depicting its own version of the story and that’s the beauty of these pictures,” he adds.

The photographer is not a big fan of digital photography and prefers shooting on a film instead. “I carry two cameras on my shoot, it was only a year ago that I bought my digital camera. Films have a sense of nostalgia associated with them, especially B/W films. I like different shades of greys with grain. I feel it gives life to my photographs,” he signs off.