Created over nine years, Soul of the Nilgiris is a labour of love and the story of a place told through a personal tapestry of oral narratives, conversations, writings and over 300 photographs.
The book traverses the cultural, ecological, colonial and the now drastically altered landscape of the Blue Mountains situated in the Western Ghat region of southern India, while attempting to draw attention to the lives of its indigenous people and the synergistic way in which they were attuned to the natural world. Their lifestyles were (still are) based on a respectful, reciprocal orientation and a sacred relationship with their land and there is a dire need to give voice to the relevance of this knowledge to the times we live in.
All proceeds from this book will be donated to Keystone Foundation, a registered not for profit Trust based in the Nilgiris.
Text and Photographs : Ramya Reddy
Book Design : Cleber de Campos
Editing : Rohini Mohan
Printing, Prepress : Pragati Offset, Hyderabad
Spine Embroidery : Toda women-artisans
Website : soulofthenilgiris.com by Mrinali Kamath
These images were seen, felt and made through the filter of nostalgia connecting me with my mountain home, the blue mountains or the Nilgiris. The series is a continuing visual diary of sorts; where the notes made, like fleeting thoughts of everyday - somewhat disconnected yet, bound together.
The series is a continuing visual diary of sorts; where the notes made, like fleeting thoughts of everyday - somewhat disconnected yet, bound together.
a sense of freedom came from three photographers from three continents shooting the same five rolls of film. linked only by our friendship and led by our instincts, we used multiple exposures on the same rolls of film as an experiment in synchronicity. each roll was exposed at three times the standard ISO rating and passed from shayne (Vermont, USA) to olaf (london, UK) and finally to ramya (bangalore, india). chance gave the images a fluidity and a sense of unplanned play.
as humans we are programmed to try to make sense of our surroundings. unexpected layered elements combine with unusual frames and borders to defy any obvious logic.
we can assemble parts of a story but we can’t complete the plot. It is a process so pure and void of any unnecessary judgement.
we let the journey take over, waiting to be amazed by the universe. it puts us back in touch with the innocence of creating. the subconscious makes connections in the photographic collage that we are not aware of. our sensibilities guided us from picture to picture. metaphors abound, as watery reflections become visual dreamscapes, words grafittied over grass and gravestones seem like private conversations from the other side.
the subconscious inner worlds which govern us can be blended together to create a oneness which speaks to us all.
~ ramya reddy, shayne lynn & olaf willoughby
{ the images below are a selection from the series}
