Actress Deepti Naval makes her debut as Photographer:
Geeta Sharma reports

The affair began four years ago, when she visited the place on a holiday. Smitten by its magical charm. she has been going back to it ever since. And now, she has decided to make the affair public through the 40 odd photographs that have been put on show at Gallery Espace in Delhi. The photographs, a combination of picture postcard-pretty landscapes and abstract images, capture the beauty of Deepti Naval’s new found passion. Leh and Ladakh. The exhibition, titled “In Search of Another Sky” also marks her debut as a photographer. The actress has already made her mark as a poet, painter and script writer. I had visited Leh and Ladakh four years ago and was astounded by its untrammeled virgin beauty. I kept going there and wanted to bring back some of the experience for others to see. Says Naval. So this January when Deepti visited the area again, she remembered to take a camera along to capture the winter texture of the region at sub zero temperatures!

Once I saw the results of what I had captured through my camera, I was thrilled and impatient to share it with everyone. Hence this exhibition, she says, with child-like enthusiasm. The exhibition in Delhi will be followed by a second at the Piramal Gallery in Mumbai. Deepti says she did not shoot with any pre-conceived theme in mind. She walked and trekked a lot and where ever an image appealed to her she just clicked. “Ladakhi women have an innate sense of dignity and confidence bereft of any pretensions something I have come to admire and was able to capture in this frame. She says. Deepti stayed with the women for a week and says their sense of contentment made her realize how often one chases futile goals in life.

Another frame, which she describes as the door to wilderness, shows an old temple door made of wooden slabs through the gaps of which one can see a stretch of barren land. There is a certain poetic quality in this that conveys the desire to search for a deeper meaning to life. The photographs, priced between Rs. 9,000 and Rs 12,500, are then, yet another expression of Deepti's creative impulse. What next? Says Naval “I don’t know I have never planned anything in life. May be I will direct movies…”