A toddler standing alone or just after his last tears, a mother grooming a child, a middle-aged woman in Gochi Kattu (saree wearing style) standing in the midst of the ancient walls of a village, womenfolk chatting happily.
These are few of the many images from ordinary life that Ramesh Babu Kandukuri celebrates through his photography. Ramesh is a seasoned journalist with a passion for photography. One can visit his Samanyashastram (Common Science) gallery at Shaikpet in Hyderabad between 2 to 8 pm to see the remarkable exhibition.
Ramesh's style of photography is widely appreciated. The journalist's father is also a photographer from Yellareddypet of erstwhile Karimnagar. Though Ramesh was introduced to the camera at an early age, he did not imagine that he would one day be so passionate about celebrating the lives of the unsung through his photography.
Ramesh completed his MA in English from Osmania University in Nizamabad and wished to become a writer. He started off as a journalist in 1997 in Hyderabad at a fortnightly newspaper. He worked for over a dozen print and digital media organisations between 1997 and 2017.
"The masses who constitute more than 80% are not being celebrated in the media, though they're (ordinary people) rich in their own way. I'm celebrating ordinary life by being with them and embracing that bliss with a camera," says Ramesh in a conversation about his photography and journalism with TNM.
Each of the portraits that Ramesh has captured has a spark to it, bringing the person alive within a static frame. When asked about this, Ramesh says, "The image will be successful only if one can associate and connect with it. If the photographer's objective is to capture the soul, the problem will disappear."
So far, Ramesh has taken over a lakh photographs and has exhibited around 1,000 pictures at different venues. Ramesh's passion for celebrating the ordinary is not limited to photographs; he has written as many as 13 books, his Ordinary Thought of Life, which was published in 2006 and 'Meeru Samanyulu Kavadam ela? (How to become ordinary) in 2015.
It was in 2010 that Ramesh returned to photography, doing a project with the famous photographer Raghu Rai. Ramesh calls it his "second birth" as it drove him to the art.
Ramesh says that he doesn't work with his head when he is with the camera to get the images he wants, but with his soul. "I'm trying to capture and exhibit the aesthetics, energy, and expression of ordinary beauty, life-size," he says.