Siddhartha selects the cover very carefully, not because it is an amazing work of street, but because one day at the peak of depression, almost given up, he found himself lost in the city with no clear memory of where he was going, when he came across this wall. The message of life became very clear to him. Today his photographs and his story speak for each other, complement each other, and they together present to you a brilliant array of artistic reality in order to transcendent life into something more.
Siddhartha Paul has learned the textbook rules of photography diligently only to be able to break them as and when he desires. This motif of deviation and reconstruction has become a considerable part of his style. Jovially disagreeing with the term “street photographer”, he considers himself rather as a keen observer who likes to reimagine the reality as “what could be”. His typical characteristic probably is the juxtaposition of apparently mundane, odd, and mutually unrelated objects and beings to create a striking picture. Siddhartha loves to experiment with deconstruction and disembodiment of animal and human forms using shadows, reflections and alternative POV to build a story in a captured moment, often multi-layered, infused with geometric patterns and symbolism, they demand to be looked at with thoughtful consideration.
However, if there is something that defines Siddhartha as an “observer”, it is his sense of humour. His photographs often cater to pop culture puns and idioms while maintaining their poetic qualities. His compositions never fail to make his audience smile with its witty framing and storytelling. This rare ability to humorously look at his subjects and consequently at life comes with a profound philosophy that enables Siddhartha to truly identify his art as a part of himself.What had begun as only the documentation of his avid travelling and wander lust, underwent many twists of life and fate to become the apex of street genre it is today. Siddhartha’s journey has by no means been smooth or easy, he is a common man with a routine office job, who has struggled in his domestic life. Diagnosed with severe eyesight issues and suspected eye cancer, almost put an end to his passion for photography leaving him physically and mentally broken, with no clear path to move ahead, this deep thinking and sensitive man, did not stop embracing life with whatever little he had. Being forbidden to get out in bright sun, he continued to take pictures from within his room and in the evening. He fell in love with the old charms of the city anew. He fell in love with something so many of us take for granted, his eyesight.
