Unable to stage and photograph objects in pairs, in situ (for logistical reasons and not to disrupt the business), I photograph individual objects, in the back alley of Antique shops and warehouses, using vertical natural light (i.e. when the sun is at its hottest!); accepting that I shall have to pair the objects I photograph at a later date.
I spend on session, at Madonna Antiques', taking a picture of the two monkeys that the owner has dug up especially for me, after I had shown him a postcard of my 'Good Day Mr Darwin' picture, which features a ceramic model of Darwin's proverbial ape.
These monkeys will become the stage partners to the kerosene iron in a second 'Histoires...' in this INDIA SERIES, making a connection with the BESTIAIRE series, which I have begun in England.
It is so hot in the sun (this is the hottest season) that after a few minutes the metal objects I photograph ('kindi', 'wurpa', etc.)are too hot to pick up.
I shelter under a black umbrella, which just about enables me to see the image on the display screen. My cloths are dripping wet and I drink two litres of water in two hours.
The next photo session, after the iron, is spent taking photographs in the back alley of one of the antique warehouses. It proves productive, as, besides providing some potentially usable objects, it takes me in a different artistic direction.
In the evening, at the studio, I try a series of combinations between two, three and four objects, in different permutations.
One new 'Histoires...' comes out of this session, Histoires... (Kindi.Hands), which, by the choice of objects—a bronze vessel traditionally used for ablutions ('kindi') and a painted hand, salvaged from a pulled down Christian church—is suggestive of the style-life.
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