Wish my butterfly would live forever is a dream of a girl that stretched its wings during pandemic lockdown in Kolkata, a city of India. As butterfly is a metaphor of maturity and change, the story evolves and throws a question to all of us about our concern and desire to make any change and seek our maturity in order to save our biggest home – the Earth from its severe health crisis. Amid pandemic and the lockdown aftermath the more I started to feel losing control of my outer world, I started to behold more the person whom I love the most – my daughter, and started taking pictures of her. I started to explore her visions, so sublime and pre-eminent. “I would be a protector of the nature to safeguard forests, seas and sky. My own place would be way far from these concrete jungle, under the blue and starry sky; butterflies will be my friends and flowers my finery” – she said. My initial thought of documenting her suddenly changed from here onwards. Conceivably the story became an attempt to picture the girl lost in her imagined world. The improvement of global health and seeking for a better earth is of utmost priority now, and our responsibility in safeguarding our earth from its biggest crisis is still so dubious. This story might give us a realization that we can certainly heal our world together if we earnestly want to. For that, we must have an achievable dream to protect our planet, just like maintaining safety at our homes during the pandemic. Another day just passed by and the wounded butterfly Suhani caught yesterday and treated it with all her care and tenderness, just flew away. She said, “Ma, wish my butterfly would live forever”.
I was born and brought up in Kolkata. Being an elder daughter of a middle-class Bengali Hindu family, photography was not even in my frame as a profession. But, like all other free soul, I dared to do what was unlikely for my society. I left my job at corporate office to pursue my passion into photography in the year 2015. Being an introvert person, I found my interest in the communicating power of the images and slowly, my passion for this medium developed. I realized through this medium I can express my feelings and emotion generously. Photography is my cultivated passion and more than anything, it’s a personal need for me. However, I believe, it’s a strong medium that can shape up the thoughts, opinions and ideas of a society, maintaining the ethical value, as maintained in every work culture. I am basically a story telling photographer; I work both on social issues and personal stories.