The Art of Kolam

in #photography7 years ago (edited)

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If you're ever in Chennai during early January, you owe it to yourself to take a few hours and see the kolam before it's completed and judged as the process is interesting. As you can see, the powder must be well controlled by the fingers, if too much spills out it's nearly impossible to erase it w/o impacting the surrounding designs.

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Scene from of the annual kolam competition in Mylapore (Chennai), India.

What's Kolam you ask? Most often done throughout southern India each morning by women (most of the time), Kolam is essentially chalk or rice powder that is geometrically laid out according to a pattern and then the lines are filled in by skilled fingers. Often the powdered material is colored and by 9am most have been trampled.

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The best to to see them in a neighborhood setting is about 6:15am as they're being created. Kolam is done to usher in prosperity to the home.

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The judging is completed by late morning and the winners are selected. Once night fall arrives, the winners have oil lamps lit on top of their creations. This post will make at least one person home-sick.

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I used an improvised boom pole to get my camera about 12' of the ground which isn't easy to do in a crowd and of course, you can't just fly a drone over a crowd. The pole was actually a telescoping monopod upon which I rigged some paracord to help control the angle. It was not a comfortable setup as I rested the pole upon my chest and used a remote to trigger the camera each time.

#photography #travel #art #india #kolam

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Beautiful picture series.

The last picture is the best for me, can I use it to my wallpaper?

Most certainly :)

This is art man, how much time it takes?

These are quite complex, much more so than the daily kolams that most do. They take from around 1 hour to 3 hours I believe... some could take longer. The site must also first be properly prepared - swept and dampened.

Its amazing for such a great work...hope yhu happy to go thoughthis

Awesome! Upvoted and following!

Thank you for posting this. I think this is what you referred to in your previous response to me.

This post will make at least one person home-sick.

True in my case. Many thanks.

Yes, indeed, it was directed to you.

upvote and resteem...good woork!

Beautiful, Chennai and tamil traditions are world oldest culture...i am being proud of one.
Please check my posts and follow me @athavan

Very nice, always happy to see things of this vain, just reminds me of the constant beauty in the doing of a thing. Thanks for sharing!