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| Sunil Sharma |
“Of all the means of expression,
photography is the only one that fixes a precise moment in time.”
– Henri Cartier-Bresson
Happy New Year!
Setu ---- a happy global community, ever growing, ever evolving, over the last eight years---warmly welcomes the year 2025 and the valued readers and writers alike, for the new challenges and opportunities, and a desire to serve the community with humility every month.
With 5,102,092 page views so far and counting, thanks to your overall support and love---the journal is on roll.
The bilingual journal wishes you the very best in the coming months in terms of creativity, inspiration, wellness and positivity.
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| Bass Player (Photo by Robert Madox-Harle) |
The January's special section carries responses to the theme: "Music for the Soul".
The open call was about a poignant photograph "Bass Player" shot by multifaceted Robert Maddox-Harle, the Australian artist our readers are already familiar with---like the rest of the reading world with his works.
This B/W photograph captures a particular moment of interaction, of music production, of high energy---a moment of inspiration, of inspired performance, by a gifted female player, about to vanish into a depthless void.
As the famous French artist Henri
Cartier-Bresson remarks about the art of photography:
“Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.”
The task was to "read" and "respond" to this image---part of "Conversations with Robert Maddox-Harle" project.
Her lips open, mouth voicing words,
fingers playing the instrument, eyes dreamy, animated, the female musician with
cropped hair and other accoutrements, suggestive of an artist as a bohemian,
can be read as disruptive of the status quo, of respectable bourgeoisie
sceptical of folks creating non-profit aesthetic values, values that feed soul,
not body, in a consumerist culture.
It challenges the patriarchy and fashion
industry, especially Hollywood notions of female dressing and appearance,
challenging the glam quotient and sexual stereotyping of actors as dolls.
Here, an empowered female musician, bold
and confident, on stage, singing and plucking notes, dressed as a cat-woman and
as performer, caught on film for you by a philosophy-minded poet-artist.
Incidentally, Robert Maddox-Harle, the
"author" of this image says about the player and
the mood that "Mahney is 'Goat Girl', one of the three members
of the country/hillbilly/mountain musical group – The Hillbilly Goats.
They regularly play the East Coast of Australia. This photo was from their concert at The Channon Tavern, near Nimbin, northern NSW. The photo is rather enigmatic in that she seems not sure of what is about to happen, the group are wonderful at improvisation, I think she was waiting to “come-in” after the violin player, 'Goat Buster' finished her solo? This group engages the audience totally."
Well, the dialogue continues.
Rest of the edition, needless to say, carries similar stimulating content for you, featuring some top writers.
Thankful to you and all the published writers/artists for their support.
Please enjoy!
Best.
Sunil Sharma,
Managing Editor, Setu (English)
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