Artist: Sammya Brata

Medium: Photography

Edition: 1/1

Collection: Split Stories

Diptych specifications- 1920x2400

Individual images available in their original resolution.

Both shots composed in the year - 2020

About the piece:

This split-screen speaks for itself- The collage of the two separate images shot in Kolkata, India is the depiction of "fear".

As a kid, I have always been extremely afraid of thunderstorms. When I was 5, I witnessed a huge tree blasting into a catastrophe right in-front of my eyes on being hit by a lightning strike. Since then, I would rather rush to a shelter or hide beneath my bed each time I saw a flash of lightning in the distance. Fear is a feeling that unites us as well as divides us. What a child feels on the inside while experiencing their first thunderstorm is similar to what a grown-up might feel in an unfamiliar surrounding- the hearts beat the same, loud, and frightened.

This Split-screen photograph unfolds my childhood trauma that continues to bother me sporadically since I have been focusing on extreme weather photography over the last 2-3 years. Over the last couple of years, I have tried my best to conquer my inner fears associated with lightning but those horrific memories remain.

About the collection: When people ask me about my fairly popular work on split-screen images, I very candidly tell them that to begin with, they are extremely difficult to visualize - the execution part comes much later. And more often than not, it is quite a daunting task to combine 2 or more frames together as one coherent story since most them are not remotely connected to each other, both in terms of theme as well as composition. Well, this interesting concept is basically a sub-set of the tested mechanism of DIPTYCH art (pronounced as "dip-tick," which has a Greek origin in "dis," meaning two, and "ptykhe," meaning fold) which combines in two pieces of artwork in a single frame or are presented together without technically modifying the artworks in any form or shape. This collection of PHOTOGRAPHY DIPTYCHS called “Split Stories” comprises of 10 such seamless yet evocative 1/1 collage-compositions created with some of my strongest photographs shot around the world aimed at conveying a deeper message. The collectors essentially get 2 photographs with the value of ONE.

About the artist- Sammya Brata is an award-winning street and documentary photographer, who has won the Canon Photo Marathon India in 2019 and has been an established educator, curator, mentor and a two-time TEDx speaker.

License:

Primary NFT holder is free to use in advertising, display privately and in groups, including virtual galleries, documentaries, and essays by holder of the NFT, as long as creator is credited. Provides no rights to create commercial merchandise, commercial distribution, or derivative works. Copyright remains with creator.