“I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.”

Stanley Kunitz

These lines are excerpts from famous American poet Stanley Kunitz’s poem titled “The Layers”. I read the poem in my early twenty and felt quite intrigued by the poet’s philosophical thoughts about aging and loss. After the youthful years passed away and I turned a new leaf of my life, which I love to call “infancy of maturity”, I was finally able to absorb the poet’s thoughts and perspectives of life and its layers. 

Of all the lines in the poem, I found “Live in the layers, / not on the litter.” the most intriguing and philosophical one. Rocks that build the walls of canyon have layers clearly visible. Apart from making the canyon beautiful, these layers are a witness tothe history of different geological eras. Similarly, layers in someone’s life create and narrate story and history of the person in question. In that sense, it is just like the girths of a tree, which develops with every passing year in a tree’s life. The only difference is, unlike the girth of the tree, layers of life do not represent a person’s age.

Each layer depicts a different era and preserves lots of memories of what we did and what happened to us in that period. A layer presents a wonderful lens through which, we can look into the era gone by. All these layers create a collage i.e. life. In the series titled “Layers of Life: Life of Layers”, I have clicked and collated several photos that capture different moments and moods of our life. One can call the series “Colours of Life” or “Mundaneness inLife”. From bubbly and naughty childhood to curious adolescence, romantic youth to matured mid-age and finally the sunset years, the journey is worth celebrating on canvas and through lens. 

Just like the poet, I have met many people. When talking to them, I felt like walking through the layers of some lives. It is like reliving the old memories. Some layers I am yet to live. There are many I will never experience coz layers come with different buds, blooms and blues in an individual’s life. Hence, I often stand as a mute spectators and watch the layers of people’s lives from close quarters. With an inquisitive mind, I try to experience and enjoy these, though from a distance. Some I can relate to and the rests feel alien. 

Figuratively and emotionally, these photos are layers of life and technically, become the life of layers. From the series, one can easily guess that I have focused on street photography in my search of layers of life. While doing so, I tried to choose the scenarios involving different elements in the background, foreground and middle ground. Layers add depth, complexity and mystery to the picture just like these do to our life. In both cases, layers make photos and people more mysterious, interesting and engaging. Layers tell us to pause, rewind and assess how the days were spent!   

All these photos show mundane activities like people taking bath, selling goods, sitting idle, an auto driver waiting for passengers, ducks on the road, fish market, children playing etc. On the surface, each of these may look like “litter” but these could well be layered compositions of life. To me, the difference between layers and litters is subjective. While being preoccupied and overwhelmed with litters, we become oblivious to the layers in our lives. We get busy with mundane activities while the magic of life unfoldsin front our eyes. But then, we are nincompoop and fail to notice the grace and glory in daily happenings. 

Each layer has its own colours and compositions. These layers may contradict each other. However, all are trueand make our lives whole. From time to time, we revisit the layers and embrace them. Whether good or bad, denying the reality may give us temporary solace but no permanent balmy touch. Accepting all the layers when rewinding our memories with good grace enables us to claim, “All these are different aspects of a single person, that’s me, and have helped me become what I’m today”.

When we look at the layers from a distance and with an air of curiosity, we can understand that life is beautiful, amazing and interesting. On the surface, each layer feels like an isolated phase but when put together like mosaic tiles, they look intertwined and complete our life.