Tuesday, December 11, 2007

The most precious moment of a South Indian wedding.


Weddings are of course most important on everyone’s life. During a wedding, there are lot of events and ceremonies performed by the kith and kin of the couple. But there is always a climax for a wedding celebration… and that is called ‘Muhurtham’ (The groom tying the ‘Thali’ – ‘mangalsuthra’ around the neck of the bride) in south Indian weddings. It is this moment which is very precious in the couple’s life as they are declared officially and religiously as husband and wife. This moment may be compared to the exchange of wedding rings in western weddings.

The emotional content of these pictures are usually very high as it reflects the cultural values of the Indian weddings. The bride and her close relatives (the bride’s parents and grand parents) burst out in peak of emotions. I had captured the emotions of the brides and her fathers, collecting tears at the corner of their eyes during the 'muhurtham' in some of the weddings.

I saw the above expression (first picture) of the bride; while the groom ties the ‘Thali’ around her neck. She became excited, closed her eyes tightly and buried her head in between her legs and the photographers were not able to capture her face clearly. Well, even though the face of the bride is not clearly visible, I liked this picture. For me, the momentary expression and the body language is more important to tell about the mood of the occasion than showing her face. (Look at the ‘tongue biting’ expression of the groom also).

But the other photographer did wait to get the couple pose for a shot as tying the ‘Thali’ (the second picture). I never believe in such kind of ‘posed photos’ as they look very artificial and the looking into the camera with a framed expression is not exactly real and natural!

Let us capture the inner mood and expression of our subjects, especially in a wedding.

-KL.Raja