Weekend Portfolio: Dipanjan Chakrborty - Kumortuli
Text and Photography by Dipanjan Chakrborty
Photo Editing by Haley Winchell
About Dipanjan: Dipanjan is a Kolkata based street and documentary photographer and has been documenting the city for the last few years. As a photographer, his perspective remains to explore street photography as a key to reach the common people and their lives. He loves to tell stories through his lens.
Every frame tells a story but when we create a story within a frame, it makes the frame more beautiful. After being a street and documentary photographer his course of life has entirely changed. He started photography in his childhood. But he has had a craze for photography since his childhood, whenever he could get a mobile or camera from anyone he would always try to capture the surrounding people and their daily life.
He loves to see photos daily, in social media he used to watch various kinds of pictures from different countries and different photographers that helped increase his knowledge. When he makes a plan to go out for a shoot, first he used to do research on that particular subject or project, then he used to make a plan on that particular place and time when the shoot takes place, because time is more important in street photography. But sometimes when he went out with his equipment, he capture various candid moments on the street.
He is using a Sony A6000 mirrorless camera right now. He has used a DSLR in the past, but he now favors mirrorless as it gives a great output, especially in low light.
About the Project: Kumortuli
Situated on the banks of River Hooghly, Kumartuli or Coomartolly is where the present day artistry of Idol-making perseveres. Started off from Ahiritola Ghat, towards the lair of the proficient artistes, to witness the making of Bengal's largest festival of Durga Puja. However Kumartuli remains busy shaping the clay idols all through the year but the month of September is swirling with huge idols for the coming October's Puja. The onlookers are left awestruck at how adeptly the artists shape the figures in such a restricted space available to them. Each and every long stretch of shaded space is packed with the clay figurines of Devi Durga on her lion with Mahisasura at her feet and her children (Lakshmi, Saraswati, Karthik and Ganesh). The "Mrit Shilpi" sculpting the figures out from a mere bunch of straws and painting it to give a lively look is a month long process and indeed a sight to see and is a delight to the photographers' lens. You will often wonder at the masterpieces being made so proficiently at so little space. You will even run into varieties of intricacies- be it the huge Ganesh idol figure or the small tiny figures. A cup or two will suffice for your craving for tea in between your photographing the miniature figurines or sharing a laugh over the impromptu talks with the artistes.
You can find more of Dipanjan’s work on his website and instagram.
