Chaitanya Guttikar (left) and Edson Dias of the Goa Centre for Alternative Photography at work during their recent visit to Mokokchung. Their alternative photography equipments list runs to a good number, which also includes a twin-lens reflex camera (TLR) and a Large Format Folding Camera (on the tripod).
Limalenden Longkumer
Mokokchung | December 11
They came to Mokokchung for a week, they loved it, and they are coming back again – this time for a whole month’s stay. Edson Dias and Chaitanya Guttikar, two professional photographers from the Goa Centre for Alternative Photography (or Goa-CAP) were in Mokokchung for a project on what they say was to photograph the “contemporary lifestyle of Ao Naga community.” They arrived Mokokchung on November 28 last.
Edson Dias is the Artistic Director at Goa-CAP, a passionate fine art photographer and a professional expert in black and white photography. Chaitanya Guttikar, based in Pune and associated with the Goa-CAP has a PhD in Mathematics and was a visiting professor at the University of Miami. He left his professorial job and returned to India in 2010. He is now one of the directors of Goa-CAP.
Goa-CAP is the first conservative art space dedicated solely to the understanding, appreciation, education and promotion of alternative photography in India, based in Calangute, Goa.
There is a vast difference between taking a picture and making a photograph, and Goa-CAP knows the difference. Goa-CAP aims to become a centre of excellence to work on alternative photography and archival research with a commitment to the continued development, preservation and conservation techniques for photographic materials.
During their stay in Mokokchung, the photographer duo interviewed and photographed a number of locals from all walks of life. They admitted that they initially thought Mokokchung was a “village” and that they thought 7 days would be enough for their project. However, on arriving Mokokchung, they realised that a week’s time was not enough to capture the images of “contemporary lifestyle of the Ao Naga community.”
Saying that “there was not a single dull moment” during their stay in Mokokchung, and that there was more to be done for their project, the two disclosed that they will return to Mokokchung again, and stay for a month. Both being adventurous, outspoken and light-hearted, they found no hitch going about meeting, interviewing and photographing the local people.
Asked why a project on “contemporary lifestyle of Ao Naga community,” the photographers unreservedly said “the outsiders know of Nagas only as a tribal community with spears and headgears... basically like the images from Hornbill Festival.” They even narrated how their train co-passengers on their way to Nagaland raised eyebrows when they said they were going to this hill state.
Their discovery about the bloody December 27, 1994 incident in Mokokchung, wherein the 16th Maratha Light Infantry (MLI) of the Indian Army carried out an appalling act of atrocity which was unmistakably and systematically engineered, inspired them to also do a separate ‘project’ on it.
The two professionals have also assured that the Goa-CAP in collaboration with the newly formed Mokokchung Photography Club will organize the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day 2012 in Mokokchung on April 29. The Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is observed every year on the last Sunday of the month of April. Apart from completing their project and organizing the worldwide event, the duo also plans to celebrate Moatsü in their next visit to Mokokchung.
