I am Ageless...she put a spell on Me by Swati Chakraborty

About this series

My age is infinity stretching to catch a meaning, time trying to compartmentalize an osmosis of emotions, biology wrapping its tangle of rules - all of which I defy with a master stroke of steely elegance.

Swati Chakraborty

photosbyswati.eth

I met my grandfather through a photograph. He sits there in a sturdy piece of black-and-white paper, holding a two-year-old me - my only proof of ever having received any grandfatherly love.

As I veered from photographing for pleasure to choosing it as a profession, this black and white photo stuck with me - reminding me how photographs can turn moments into memories.

The best photographs tell a story - and though I have experimented with many in art for art's sake style, a story was never far behind. Be it the #metoo movement, or marital abuse, my camera has been my way of expressing my angst, my protest, my concern, my prayers, my hopes.

This is perhaps also why I am drawn to portraits - capturing human emotion through my reliable third eye, my aperture.

All the people and their stories that I get to know during my photographic session inform my social vision and fire my creative imagination.

Though the awards have been a huge source of encouragement, my stories remain my source of inspiration.

Photography for me is a moment of pure magic - a potent moment, thought, feeling - captured forever, translated without a word, understood through your personal lens of psyche and emotion - a dot of framed eternity.