Metro Pulse/Artbeat/India in My Eye

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What:
India in My Eye

Where:
the Tomato Head, Market Square

When:
Through April 5

"India in My Eye" presents photographs by Brad Treadaway

by Heather Joyner

With about a billion citizens and an astonishing complexity of culture, India is arguably our planet's most exotic nation. As such, it's been a gold mine for photographers—think Henri Cartier-Bresson, Mary Ellen Mark, and Sebastiao Salgado. At the same time, its complexity presents specific problems. Resigning oneself to capturing mere fragments of an overwhelming whole is one issue, and it applies to photography in general. In India, however, it seems there are fragments of fragments. Nothing (and everything) appears connected. Or, as photographer Raghu Rai puts it, "Over the centuries, so much has melded into India, that it is not really one country; it's not one culture...all that we have in India still lives—several centuries at the same time."

Seeing the black and white photography of Brad Treadaway is like reading the work of a promising young novelist. It leaves one eager for more. The same can be said regarding mature accomplishments, but in Treadaway's case, wanting more stems from a viewer's desire to know where he's going as well as where he's been. As terrific as many of the 20 or so photographs now at the Tomato Head are, they indicate that Treadaway's journey has only just begun. Nevertheless, the selenium-toned prints on display represent a thoughtful and interesting visual exploration of numerous places in India.

In his work, Treadaway responds to a variety of situations with infectious fascination. His image from Benares titled Ajay and Child, a portrait featuring a father and three children, is absolutely stunning. And its emphasis on the father (rather than mother) cradling an infant is unusual. The man's posture resembles that of a Renaissance Madonna, and his expression reflects the phrase "Dharam karo," meaning "Do your duty, your dharma." The photo imbues the domestic with religious overtones, acknowledging India's very character. Says writer Victor Anant, "This India is still there, will be there. It lives outside time, in a kind of space that...is pure because it is unashamed. It is the choreography of an archetypal innocence. And living proof that the sacred and the secular are inseparable..."

Treadaway's photograph of men resting atop sacks of grain in Jaipur also incorporates layers of meaning. Stacked high and deep as they are, the sacks allude to an omnipresent need to feed countless souls. Here, there is no such thing as plenty, and the men pictured are as likely to be guards as they are laborers. The sense of vastness the image conveys is countered by more intimate shots. For instance, Kolkata Sleeper shows a young man asleep on a cot, his arms crossed over his chest. A tremendous electric fan reminds us of the midday fatigue in a tropical climate. As if glimpsed through a keyhole, the scene is a private one, yet we are privy to its serenity.

A graduate of UT (now earning a masters degree in photography at Louisiana State University), Treadaway called Knoxville home for 19 years. But his curiosity about other countries has taken him far afield. In India, he lived for months out of a backpack—on $10 a day. He says, "I am interested in the way people express themselves...their place relative to those around them. Beyond that I am interested in how people interact, because to me, interaction is the heart of culture."

As a foreigner in India, Treadaway's degree of comprehension and ability to communicate must have been limited, yet he's managed to return with insightful material. Such insight requires a willingness to shed one's preconceptions. "I am not righteous, religious, or out to save the world," says Treadaway, "but if I succeed, the people I cross will better understand the people they cross." That's a tall order, but it's an important notion in a world that seems ever consumed by divisions and hatred. As for India (according to Rabindranath Tagore), it "still keeps alive...against the cyclonic fury of contradictions and the gravitational pull of the dust."

Comparing photography to the Zen art of archery, Cartier-Bresson said, "It's a state of being, a question of openness, of forgetting yourself." Salgado adds, "You have a camera that's part of your hands, part of your eyes. Then you go inside, without judging anything.... You're there to see, hear, listen, understand, integrate..."

And it is when Treadaway is most involved in the situation he's in that his work shines. Photographs like one of a goat's silhouette and another of a temple in Delhi are compositionally striking, but they are more about the act of photographing than they are about the subject itself. Sometimes Treadaway misses what Cartier-Bresson termed "the decisive moment." His lesser efforts point toward the aforementioned newness of his journey. But he is on his way.