Pradip Malde » prayer and despair

fifteen years ago in japan

Pradip Malde — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:11:26 +0000

Pond, Anrukanji, Japan
December, 1994

Taha Muhammad Ali

Pradip Malde — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:45:04 +0000

Angel. Jodphur, India. 1995.
platinum-palladium print.

When Taha Muhammad Ali speaks of poetry and words, to me, he also speaks of photography and vision. His work engulfs me. Buy his book, So What, and read ‘The Falcon’.

Where

Poetry hides
somewhere
behind the night of words
behind the clouds of hearing,
across the dark of sight,
and beyond the dusk of music
that’s hidden and revealed.
But where is it concealed?
And how could I
possibly know
when I am barely able,
by the light of day,
to find my pencil?

by Taha Muhammad Ali.

diwali, a time for light, appreciating dark

Pradip Malde — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:38:24 +0000

Moonrise, Araam Hotel, Jaipur. 1995
Platinum-palladium print, 8×10 in

wishing gentleness to Gustav

Pradip Malde — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:30:02 +0000

Deer fence. Near Irkutsk, Siberia.

1995

platinum-palladium print, 8 x 10 in

moonrise, lake baikal

Pradip Malde — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:40:02 +0000

moonrise, Lake Baikal, Siberia.

from series, ‘Prayer and Despair‘

1995.

platinum-palladium print, 8×10 in.

My friend Chris Bucklow, in a discussion (What’s in the Dwat) of Phillip Guston’s work, considers the use of rising suns as a symbolization of polarization and dichotomy. Multiple suns, moons, selves; multiplicity. Even Salman Rushdie, in his new book, The Enchantress of Florence, puts the reader into Akbar The Great’s mind as he struggles with these multiple selves. I wonder at the frequency with which multiplicity appears in any handling of the larger (existential, dare I say it) questions about our being. Is it possible that through this ‘prismatizing’, of separating out into a multitude of channels of a conjoined experience, we are perhaps giving ourselves an indication that ‘mind’ itself is a formulation, a meta-symbol of symbols? Borges’ Library of Babel is another indication of this.

unmade bed

Pradip Malde — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:15:04 +0000

unmade bed, Mumbai, 1995.

platinum-palladium print, 8×10 in.

coconut

Pradip Malde — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:20:01 +0000

Coconut. Gujerat. India. 1995

platinum-palladium print, 8×10 in

traveling with mark

Pradip Malde — Tue, 27 May 2008 03:04:49 +0000

wood. sky. near lake baikal. 1995

platinum-palladium print, 8×10 inches.

This image was made in one of the most ‘natural’ spots on this planet that I have ever been to. And yet, what I formed my thoughts around is the result of death and decay, and ultimately, rejuvenation. Photographically, this image is not at all manipulated. Conceptually and emotionally, it is, as they say in Battlestar-speak, frakked! Not dust to dust and ashes to ashes, but wood to sky, water to ashes. I made it while traveling through Siberia with my friend and colleague Mark Preslar.

This photograph is part of the ‘Prayer and Despair‘ series from 1994-95. It will be included in the sequence from Siberia that I intend to post in a week or so.