SNAPSHOTS: Photo Series August Issue.

1. ” From the Train’s Window”- Andrzej Biłuński in conversation with Ipsita Deb.
2. Photos By Brian Michael Barbeito
3. The Isle of Skye, Revisited–Harsha S. Reddy
4. Photographs by Neli Mukherjee.
5. Photographs by Soma Dey Sarkar

” From the Train’s Window”- Andrzej Biłuński in conversation with Ipsita Deb.

All Photos by Andrzej Biłuński.

Ipsita Deb writes:

I have a weird fascination for windows. I stop whenever I see windows. Stare at them for hours, getting glimpses of lives cut in a window-sized frame or sometimes just weaving intricate tales inside my head about the lives dwelling within. Windows are fascinating in many ways. Each window holds a world of its own, a microcosm of emotions, activities, and daily dramas. Perhaps, there is a comforting allure in this form of storytelling, where the scenes unfold in your imagination, unrestricted by reality. You become the architect of these worlds, interpreting the unspoken language of glances and gestures visible through the fixed aspect-ratio. The images are like snapshots, snapshots having a short life-span, like the stories and reels in Instagram.

I have been, for quite a long time now, following the Facebook page “From the Train’s Windows” run by the Polish photographer Andrzej Biłuński. Usually these are the times when I’m travelling by bus, on the same route to my work, with my earplugs tightly tucked in and cutting myself off from the surrounding crowd. Idly scrolling through Andrew’s photographs, I find an uncanny familiarity in the recurrent route I traverse, as if the journey itself becomes an integral part of the series. And this is happening all inside the bus !! I close my eyes and the rhythmic chugging of the train wheels blends harmoniously with the soft patter of raindrops on the window. The train pulls away from the unknown station into the unknown. It moves relentlessly, offering a continuous stream of evolving scenarios. The mist seems to cloak the world’s secrets.

I can’t rest from wondering how photographs open these portals to a distant land, to distant people. On my request, Andrew (Andrzej Biłuński), a stranger from the other side of the world, agreed to share his photographs for the fourth issue of Parcham. We had a very brief conversation (I love to see how photographers spend so little on words and yet speak so much with images!)

I.Deb : I believe there is an interesting story behind how you started on this particular series. What was the impetus behind capturing pictures from train’s windows? I suppose you travel regularly by train.

Andrzej : After thirty years of driving exclusively by car, I switched to trains. I discovered a new world, a world that can only be seen from train windows. Various glass textures (dirty, wet from rain, frozen, foggy), changing times of the day and seasons, all this creates unique images. All these factors unravel hidden secrets that stimulate the imagination. The mist adds an element of mystery, blurring the details of the distant landscapes, creating an ethereal and calming view. I decided to capture and preserve this world in photography.

I.Deb : There’s something very fascinating about this series because you are watching the everyday, the regular and yet the regular is changing a little everyday, each time you pass a place (maybe you’ve passed the place more than once). The images are something new everytime, maybe very subtle but a new image every time. This fleeting nature of the everydayness – same place, but new image – doesn’t it thrill you to find this dynamism in our everyday landscapes?

Andrzej : That’s what I wanted to convey in my description! The landscapes morph from one setting to another, creating an ever-changing gallery of natural landscape. Each passing moment brings forth new surprises and landscapes that you could have never anticipated. We think alike even though we are over six thousand kilometers apart.

Andrew’s brevity somewhere moves me.  

I realise, these moving windows became a metaphor for life’s progression, here and elsewhere. As the misty, snowy landscapes whirred past through Andrew’s train windows, I realise how transient and fleeting these moments could be. Each scene is unique, never to be witnessed again, a series of fleeting vignettes, soon to be replaced by something else. You never know – when you are entering the Narnia’s Wardrobe – what new story you’re landing in, this time.

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