Family Portraits
Bharat Sikka’s intimate portrayal of his father is exhibited at Nature Morte’s chic, new gallery in Delhi
A supremely introspective photographer, Bharat Sikka turns the lens on his father in his latest series. The result is an incredible, humourous and moving portrayal of his old man, a former sapper (or military engineer) in the Indian Army.
Born in 1973 in New Delhi, Sikka grew up with a father who was on the road and away from the family. As an adult, however, he decided to turn things around. “Photography evolved into a way to understand and relate to my father, and into a collaboration where we enacted our relationship and he could show me — with full cognizance and agency — who he is,” says Sikka, who is always experimenting with the medium in the most bizarre and wonderful of ways.
Titled The Sapper, the series began in 2013 as a musing with Sikka photographing his father on his phone, eventually sparking off a renewed bond and years of father-and-son adventures that followed. Most of the images are from their visit to construction sites in remote Leh and Kalimpong — from 2017 and 2018 respectively — where his father had worked and built structures as a sapper. Excursions to family homes in Goa and New Delhi are also brought to life with a sense of tenderness and curiosity.
“Photography evolved into a way to understand and relate to my father”
Across his work, Sikka uses tight frames and natural lighting, revealing emotions up close: fragility, nostalgia, togetherness and strength. In The Sapper, his colours are raw, muted and subdued; a quietly radical choice for a photographer who is constantly trying to challenge how India is depicted — especially in the West.
Like his portraits, Sikka’s landscapes, still lifes, collages and architectural wide shots are deeply personal and psychologically charged. Describing his process, he says, “I wanted the photo- graphs to be a little bit starker, cleaner, more constructed, with lines and perspective because all of these are attributes that my father had when he was drawing, or teaching me perspective drawings.” A son of a military engineer, it comes as no surprise how Sikka’s compositions are unified by a feeling of lightness, symmetry and simplicity.
The Sapper first premiered at the annual photo fair Unseen Amsterdam in 2019. Last year, it was shown on Nature Morte’s Online Viewing Room, and this year — from 20 February to 21 March — it was on display at Nature Morte’s chic new home at The Dhan Mill New Delhi, which opened its doors to the public in January this year. Carefully thought out and assembled by curator Peter Nagy, it offers the viewer an uncomfortable sense of intimacy, reminding us that we are all witness to the sapper’s life — complicated and unfinished as it may be.
*Published in Architectural Digest India, March-April 2021
