“The exhibition is a retelling of where I have been and what I have been through and who I have been with.” That is how Gireesh Gopinathan frames his solo photo exhibition, Panoramas But Not Quite, which begins on November 28 at College of Fine Arts Thiruvananthapuram.
This veteran photojournalist from Thiruvananthapuram is a trained painter, a photographer and a documentarian — three roles that he tapped into at the start of this project.
The showcase is a collection of extended compositions, including diptych (with two panels) and triptych (with three panels) montages captured over the past three decades, which shaped Gireesh’s identity as a storyteller and documentarian.
Today’s Headlines by Gireesh Gopinathan
| Photo Credit:
Gireesh Gopinathan
Each installation brings together a series of photographs, capturing the same subjects from varied perspectives. The images seamlessly blend with one another, creating the illusion that the pictures were taken at the same instance. Gireesh shot the photographs across India and Sri Lanka during his days as a photojournalist.
“We spend hours waiting at different spots during our assignment. And often, we are unable to bring together all elements surrounding a subject into a single, wide-angled frame — therefore, losing the subject’s essence. As a solution, you shoot more, from different angles, and when we stitch these images together, it gains a new meaning,” says Gireesh, who thought of the exhibition in 2010, compiling images for the project since.
The show features 40 works captured on film and digital media. The photographic installations are inspired by the techniques of the American visual media artist, Man Ray.
“Two of the first works in the collection, Puffs & Politics and Still, Edge of Fear, were taken in 2005. It is set in Cuddalore and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu respectively, after the 2004 Tsunami, which wreaked havoc on the state’s coastal line,” says Gireesh.
Puffs & Politics by Gireesh Gopinathan
| Photo Credit:
Gireesh Gopinathan
The photographer says this medium enabled him to approach his regular assignments differently. “Instead of limiting myself to just the aesthetics of the photos, I searched for a reason to tell that story. Whilst the artist in me was keen about how the lights, colours, shadows and subjects worked, the documentarian in me was determined to stay true to the reality of events without controlling the settings too much.”
Gireesh places a special emphasis on the mundane through his works, aiming to achieve a sense of universality — be it the pictures set in the infuriating Bengaluru traffic or the multiple panels portraying children jumping into an overflowing Narmada river in the hopes of finding coins from the riverbed. “I am not talking about places, I am talking about life,” he says.
Pilgrim and heritage travel in Madhya Pradesh by Gireesh Gopinathan
| Photo Credit:
Gireesh Gopinathan
The show also displays photographs from Thiruvananthapuram where Gireesh spent his student life. Another installation displays a poignant sequence showing migrant labourers returning to their villages from Delhi during the pandemic.
“I began processing the images in 2019 and organised an online show in 2020 with 20 works, which was well-received globally. That was when I realised the potential of this photo series. In 2023, I began working on releasing the Panoramas But Not Quite photomontage book, which was launched by the Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar before the exhibition.”
Bygone Days by Gireesh Gopinathan
| Photo Credit:
Gireesh Gopinathan
“The biggest challenge was identifying images which had the potential to be conjoint in this manner. Initially, people couldn’t understand my idea. Only when they see the product are they convinced about what I have tried to convey with my work.”
About the future of this project, the photographer says, “These works are about observing, constantly searching for something fresh from the same subjects, whether they can say something new. With time, I hope to explore something with a singular subject across locations.”
Panoramas But Not Quite will be on at College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram from November 28 to December 5.
Published – November 26, 2025 11:30 am IST
