Colour, ritual mystery and a myriad sounds festoon you as you page through Günther Komnick’s photographic tribute to this seemingly impenetrable and joyous culture. One is tempted to think India does not make sense, with its rituals that hark back thousands of years, as each generation is grafted on to the previous one. While religion plays a pivotal role in this society that espouses one of the world’s greatest and most complex cultures, the people seem to take it all in their stride. Images abound of people busily going about their daily activities, rickshaws and motor cycles laden with wares, making do, and indeed improvising with the bare necessities, through Komnick we gain an insight too into the feelings are moods of the people.  

     Humble and nard-working, trading and transporting, there is an order permeating the apparent mayhem and liveliness in the images. Again, Komnick does not limit his gaze to the obvious; he lets his camera roam through the poetry of the place, the harmony that is discernible throughout this vast canvas that is India. Gestures and glances hint at depths one can only imagine, mystery is pervasive in the expressions on faces: some seem worn down by the constant struggle to survive, others relish it, others see through it and maintain a quiet dignity and determination. The images of purchase and preparation of food and of ceremonial flowers are interspersed with hints, ever so subtle, of India’s colonial past, with children proudly wearing ties on their way to or from school, as part of their uniform, as abject poverty vies with valiant efforts of individuals making their way amid an unfathomable chaos filled, with vitality.

Dr Wilhelm Snyman, Auckland, New Zealand