I took both these photos while I was exploring Azad Nagar with my friend Shivjit. Each photograph seems to give the shopkeeper a different character. The first one is quite funny. The shopkeeper seems to be scared of the tiger. But ironically the shopkeeper is looking into the camera, and so is the tiger who isn't real. So logically the shopkeeper can't be scared of the tiger since he doesn't pose a threat to the shopkeeper. I'm reminded of Michel Focault's analysis of Velasquez's Las Meninas in which the writer explains how the people painted are looking at an unseen viewer who is possibly the King/Queen Of Spain, but is also the viewer himself/herself.
If you apply Foucault's train of thought to my photo you can get some convoluted but exciting results! Am I the real tiger who the shopkeeper is afraid of? Or did I interrupt an interaction between the shopkeeper and tiger? Is the tiger angry with me or the shopkeeper? All these questions come to mind because though the shopkeeper and the tiger are in the same plane, they are looking at me. In the second photograph, the shopkeeper is an imposing presence. He's confident and gives you the impression that you're intruding into his territory. Roles have changed, and in this photograph it seems that that tiger is the shopkeeper's protector. Or that the tiger is a symbol of the shopkeeper's power. And the most unimaginative interpretation would be that he's a member of the Shiv Sena! In all cases however, the tiger and the shopkeeper are supplementing each other's power. In the previous photo, however, they are in potential opposition.
Through photography one can create an imaginary character who is completely dis-associated with the "real" person. The irony of all this is that the shopkeeper was a very friendly man.
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