TALKING PICTURES Rid Burman

Burman is a photographer born in India. With roots in a family of sculptors and painters, art has always been central to Burman’s approach to photography. After graduating from the Brooks Institute of Photography in California, he moved to New York and worked as an assistant to Steven Klein and Mark Seliger. In 2008, he returned to India and began collaborating with prestigious brands and magazines, such as Elle and Vogue, to name a few. Always on the move, Burman works between Paris, New York, and Mumbai, constantly exploring new ideas and places while drawing inspiration from the rich philosophies of both the East and West.

This image was a part of an exhibition I had done for India Art Fair in 2023. It was called Laal (Red), named after the colour of the soil they use to  wrestle on. The geometry of the bodies and the rawness of energy was so beautiful to me. There were these brutal and yet extremely erotic forms that emerged when the men wrestled... the ritualistic and spiritual discipline of the moment was fascinating.

I was commissioned to shoot a story for a friend’s magazine from Paris. The concept was 'Unknown Icons'. I wanted to shoot something with a bit of humour. Bollywood is almost like an opium for the masses in  India and often the actors have aliases who pose for events, functions etc. Sort of a parallel industry on its own, and these clones often have their own fan following. I asked one of them to come with me in front of the iconic gateway in Mumbai and then random people just approached us to take photos with Zoheb who copies the famous Salman Khan ... icons in their own right!

Just post Covid, I was asked to shoot a fashion story for Lampoon, a fashion/culture magazine from Milano. I was speaking with a lot of the youth at that time in Europe and a lot of them seemed to have a mutual feeling of loss, confusion, seclusion and severe uncertainty and anxiety about the future. There was this confusion about being able to find their path. This image summed it up for me — the bubble of youth evaporating in thin air.

This image was a part of a series I was working on almost seven years ago, about gender identities. The youth in India were just discovering the idea of being able to speak freely about the gender they identify with. I spent the evening chatting with and photographing young design students in their quarters. Some moments just stay with you forever and this was one of them. Something about the person smoking on a rusty balcony in South Delhi, and confessing that he/she/they feel like a woman in a man’s body. His/her/their attitude was just magnificent... a magnitude of contrast.

A lot of my personal work involves playing around in the darkroom. This one in particular was actually a commercial commission. The creative director wanted me to create these photograms with seasonal flowers. We were working for a beauty project, to celebrate new entrepreneurs venturing out in the business of beauty. So sort of trying to touch something subliminal...and not too obvious or direct. It's always so rewarding when a commissioned project allows you to experiment with the processes you love.

Follow Rid @ridburman