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Bhutan A Certain Modernity

by Serena Chopra

Photographs: Serena Chopra

Text: Serena Chopra

Publisher: Photoink

84 pages

Pictures: 43 tritone plates

Year: 2006

ISBN: 978-81-903911-0-8

Comments: Cloth bound hardcover, 25 x 28cm

Serena Chopra offers the viewer a portal into the lives of her subjects. Chopra spent five years in Bhutan photographing a community as it experienced a shift towards modernity. The work, “Bhutan , A Certain Modernity” examines the changing environment and the people within it. Wide-views of the rural mountainous landscape flow into voyeuristic flashes of dancers at a nightclub; many of the same individuals from the clubs are seen intimately, praying at home or in a temple. Portraits of the royal family commingle with images of farmers in the hills, invoking the spectrum of serenity and chaos of Bhutan as it crosses between past and future.

Chopra’s visual study of the culture came at a pivotal time in Bhutan’s history. After 100 years of monarchy in 2007 the King, Jigme Sinye Wangchuck voluntarily abdicated the throne to his son, the crown prince of Bhutan. The Bhutanese’ emphasis on creating a “gross national happiness” was a serious attempt to ensure government policies reached beyond the usual concerns for financial growth. The Bhutanese inner path is highlighted and exposed through Chopra’s revealing images. Her portraits, landscapes and interior compositions capture life’s subtleties and complexities within the society in a formal and astute manner.

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