A Double Entry

Look at that, two entries of the same photograph, with two different titles. One claims that the photograph was made somewhere in the 1970s and the other that it was specifically from the year 1980.

Two titles, each poetic in their own way. Jyoti Bhatt just couldn’t decide what to title this picture. This makes me think, he probably quite liked the photograph, and so kept fiddling with it.

A ‘Peeper Tree’ around a Palm Tree

1980

Jyoti Bhatt, Indian, Born 1934

An archive is interesting is precisely because of its ability to hold errors, mistakes, copies, doubles and repetitions. This repetition somehow tells me more about Jyoti Bhatt than many of his photographs do, and therefore the image is interesting.

A tree behind a tree. But perhaps the Pipal is a parasite. A ‘Peeper Tree’, growing out of the trunk of the palm. In the caption, Jyoti Bhatt simply says it is growing ‘around’ the palm tree.

The Strangler Fig

I have learnt that Pipals are not technically parasites, though they may look it. They are Epiphytes, a tree that grows on the surface of another, but derives its nutrients from the air and moisture around it. Although I do think that this Pipal eventually strangled the palm. It was simply far too strong.

The image eventually overtakes the subject it depicts.