The Beauty of Life: A Photographic Exploration by Ashok Beera
Contact Me
Questions or Comments
Send me a message or ask me a question using this form. I will do my best to get back to you soon!
About Ashok Beera
Ashok began to shoot with a seventy rupee box camera –an Agfa Click III, but little did he know what treasure he had produced on that rudimentary plastic box with a piece of meniscus plastic for its lens until the editor of a Bombay based magazine he had chanced to meet was expressed his astonishment at the quality of his pictures. Days later, the Agfa Company was equally surprised at his work and even got his camera tested in their laboratory to make sure that the lens was not changed before offering him a job. The young wayfarer barely out of his teens politely refused the offer for he was already bitten by the travel bug.
Ashok left home at a very young age with a rucksack on his back, a few rupees in his pocket and a brilliant smile on his face which had never faded even when he was stranded on the pavements penniless and foodless. For the next six years of his life he lived with students, farmers, factory workers, nomadic tribes in the Himalayas, and occasionally in some privileged conditions too. “There were times I had to choose between a roll of film for my camera and a meal for my belly. Inevitably, the choice would fall on the former” –Ashok would recall. No wonder, his initial stage of photography reflects faces he encountered in many remote places of India. ‘Travelling and photography are the two sides of the same coin, but it’s the camera that takes me to places today’.
Lack of sophisticated gadgets did not deter Ashok from taking good photographs. “Indo-Iko” –An Indian Journey, his first book published in Japan, recapitulates his travels across the subcontinent. The book is replete with images of simple village folks, toiling men and women and nomads on their seasonal migration between mountains and plains with their cattle and sheep –images taken on his equally simple cameras. In an impromptu exhibition of his photographs in a public park in New Delhi, Ashok amused to notice how a couple of shoeshine boys could relate themselves with the people in the images. “People identifying themselves in your pictures is the greatest compliment you can ever expect” –Ashok proudly reminisces.
Alongside photography, Ashok pursued his academics. After a Master’s degree from New Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, Ashok went on to study further in Spain. Thereafter, he never looked back. Spain became his second home and a launching pad for exploring the world. Some of his friends fondly saved his name in their mobile phones as Marco Polo of India.
Awards and honours have never fascinated Ashok although he admits that they give certain recognition to the photographer. “My task is to produce images earnestly and sincerely. That’s what matters. I am always ready to walk that extra kilometer for a good image”-he says. Ashok certainly walked that extra kilometer after walking fifty to get some of the most fascinating pictures of autumn in the mountains of Pyrenees between Spain and France.
“In art, especially in photographic art, there are trend setters. In course of time, trends tend to become rules and artists tend to follow the trends. There is a danger of submitting yourself to the rules. This will influence the innovation, creativity and originality of the artist. Therefore, photographers must try to break those rules and come out to be original and innovative”.
An activist with a deep sense of social responsibility, Beera Ashok tries to pay back his debt to the society by teaching underprivileged children at local government schools in his village.
‘The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.’
These lines of Robert Frost stimulate Ashok in his long journey, his Odyssey with Camera. Yes, there are miles to go, promises to keep.
This website uses cookies.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.