In his ghostly portraits, Soham Gupta shines a light on the nightlife of Kolkata, revealing how some of the city’s most vulnerable inhabitants live. In his series Angst, we follow these nocturnal figures as they move through the worlds they inhabit, becoming vivid characters in the photographer’s imagination. Gupta thinks of his portraits as resulting from a collaborative process, drawn from intimate interactions in which he and his subjects confide in one another. The photographer bears an instinctive affinity with those existing on the margins of society; he walks among them, identifying with their pains and struggles. After spending time with each subject, Gupta makes biographical accounts of their stories of sexual harassment, domestic abuse, and abandonment. Eschewing the exploitative or voyeuristic position associated with documentary practice, Gupta’s photographs imbue the powerless with an expressive agency. More than a documentation of a city and its people, the photographs are an expression of a psychological state rooted in something more essential. A sense of vulnerability and loneliness is punctuated with moments of joy and spontaneity. While the cries and pains of agony may be silenced by the photographic image, Gupta’s photographs vividly express the various shades of humanity that can only be seen during the night.
