Photographic Art by Parvathi Kumar: June Exhibition at Bernardsville Library

Bernardsville Public Library is pleased to present "Photographic Art by Parvathi Kumar" on view June 1-29 during regular library hours. The artist will hold a reception on Sunday, June 5 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.

The images presented in this exhibit are from the artist’s travels near and far—from the immediate surroundings of her home base in New Jersey, to Canada (the country of her upbringing), to India (the land of her roots), and to various other corners of the world. “Unusual perspectives with a bend toward beauty and simplicity are what my eye aims to capture,” she says, “While travel photography is my main area of interest, I also delight in everyday objects as they are and in their potential to be manipulated in the 'digital darkroom.'”

While the majority of images in the show were taken using a DSLR camera, several were also the product of her Smartphone. "Regardless of the physical tool in my hands and the technical and compositional rules and conventions, it is primarily my inner voice and intuition that guide me and control the final release of the shutter or edited image in post-processing," she says, "As the master Henri Cartier-Bresson so aptly put it, a photograph is what results when 'one's head, eye and heart are on the same axis.'"

Photography is a passion Kumar inherited from her mother at a young age. She's since taken the art on her own path and it has become a creative outlet and offering. "Through my work, I hope to allow viewers to be transported to another time and place, find emotion or solace from an isolated moment, or interpret a timeless story of their own," she says.

Ms. Kumar was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and was raised in Montreal, Quebec. Her training in photography started at age 14 from her mother and quickly become a lifelong passion. She also trained in classical guitar and Bharata Natyam (Indian classical dance) for many years. Academically, she earned a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Concordia University in Montreal and a Master's degree in computer science from NJIT in Newark. She has worked ten years in telecom software development and also teaches yoga. She lives in Bridgewater, NJ with her husband and two sons.

This exhibition will be on view in the library’s Community Room during regular library hours unless a meeting is in progress. For further information, please call the library at 908-766-0118.