K-Town Sk8 Down - Birat Rai
It was a chance encounter during the fall of 2018, when I saw group of skaters skating at the periphery of the town. The sight felt unfamiliar within the landscape I knew so well.
Six years passed and I found myself returning to that encounter. A new skate park had been established in the town; odd as it sounded to me I decided to visit it once. What began as an attempt to look at a changing part of my hometown slowly became something more personal. What drew me in was not simply skateboarding itself, but the space it created. For a while, the usual structures of life seemed to loosen there. People arrived carrying their own circumstances, differences, expectations and responsibilities; yet found a shared language in movement, repetition, failure and play. I found myself drawn to this sight, perhaps because it offered a way of looking at my own relationship with the place I come from. Over time, the act of photographing began to feel less like documenting a scene and more like trying to understand what
kept bringing me back to it. This work begins there. It is an ongoing exploration of skateboarding as a practice, but also of my own attraction to the people, spaces and possibilities that emerge around it.
© All photos copyright belongs to Birat Rai. All rights reserved.
Birat Rai (b.1995) is a PhD in Agricultural Extension and a photographer based in Kalimpong, West Bengal, India. His interest lies in documentary photography and his works revolve around the themes of youth culture, memories, transitions and understanding how it fits into the larger context of society. He began exploring photography while he was doing his under graduation studies in Agricultural Science. Over the couple of years, photography became a medium for him to experience the everyday realities of life and helped him express what was going on in and around him. He has worked as a freelancer for Reuters and has been published in a few online media outlets. Recently his work “Just here and there” was a part of OBJECTSX4, a three-dayexhibition and sale in Paris, France. He is currently working as a freelance photographer in and around Darjeeling and Sikkim Hills while simultaneously preparing for competitive examinations.
Open for Submissions:
We are seeking photographic stories from the regions of Kalimpong, Darjeeling, and Sikkim. We encourage photographers to submit original work that reflects a wide range of experiences, from personal and intimate moments to political, cultural, and social narratives. The aim is to create a collective visual narrative of the region, reflecting the diverse experiences of its people through the lens of individual artists.
Photographers need not be based in these specific areas, but their work must focus on Kalimpong, Darjeeling, or Sikkim.
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