Snapshots of Erotica Created Via WhatsApp

When image making came to an abrupt halt in March due to the lockdown, Mumbai-based Shivaji Storm Sen, with a masters in Fine Art Photography from The Arts University Bournemouth, England, decided to create DIY art that stands out. Scroll his Instagram account and you’d see scantily clad or nude women captured in various moods and a range of expressions. In some, the face looks impassive but the eyes intensely gaze at you, letting you in to their private and intimate world. The enigmatic quality of the pictures that show women trapped in their homes is unmissable (some clicked in black and white and others in colours).

All these images that celebrate the female body and sexuality have been shot over WhatsApp videos. “My images evoke emotions, tell a story and elicit thoughts,” says Sen and thereby they hauntingly remain in memory, long after you have stopped looking at the pictures. In an exclusive chat with Cosmo India, Sen tells us what inspired him, the challenges faced and if capturing pictures through FaceTime and WhatsApp is the new normal.

Shivaji Storm Sen

Cosmo: How have you been creating content since the lockdown?

Shivaji Storm Sen: I had the idea of doing Skype shoots with my subjects from the UK, where I worked for three years after finishing my masters in Fine Art Photography from The Arts University Bournemouth. However, I had never got around to actually doing one. And now it is all everyone is doing out of compulsion. So I have joined the bandwagon. I capture people from across the globe this way now.

Cosmo: There's a thin line between erotica and porn, how do you navigate that?

SSS: The fine line between porn and erotica has been the focus of many studies. A lot of theorists say that it is the original intent of the creator, which determines which is which. But I feel it has a two-sided aspect to its understanding. I believe an image, which has no other value than sexual titillation to the viewer in combination to the creator’s intent for it to be the same; can be termed as porn. However, any image which evokes emotions and elicits thoughts other than that of a sexual nature is erotica. Hence, erotica is an art that doesn’t degrade any certain gender.

Cosmo: What are your instructions to the models before the shoot?

SSS: Clean both sides of the phone camera lens, find good light, and find a way to balance your phone and be ready with costume, make up and hair. Which is normally decided over the days leading up to the shoot.

Cosmo: What are the challenges of doing an intimate shoot over WhatsApp video?

SSS: The biggest challenge is setting up the phone camera at the subject end. They have to do all the leg work and also a good internet connection and good sound on the phone makes a huge difference.

Cosmo: Your pictures are often set against books. Tell us more about that...

SSS: I was just searching for objects to add a certain theme or story to my phone backdrop as I shoot the phone independently and not take screenshots. In this quest for unique themes I soon figured that nothing could be better than the images of master painters and photographers themselves.

Cosmo: Are online shoots the new normal, since social distancing will continue to be a part of our lives?

SSS: The future of photography will always be ever changing. FaceTime shoot trends or not, unless we are adding a new way to see, it will not be progress. So the "seeing" is the important lesson and the means, methods and techniques which enable us to do so, will always evolve.