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BUSY corporate executive Arthur D’Souza has given up the nine-till-five routine to concentrate on his passion for an original photographic art form he hopes to promote all over the world.
He has taken a sabbatical from a leading publishing house in Bahrain after 26 years of climbing the business ladder to pursue his passion for photography.
Arthur, 46, from Budaiya, married with a teenage daughter, said: “I want to gain credibility as an artist and create awareness about my art form and make it a commercial success.
“But the decision about taking a sabbatical to pursue my passion was not taken in isolation.
“It has been a year and half of planning and series of discussions with my wife, a risk manager in a leading bank in Bahrain and my boss, who also happens to be a good friend.
“I was most concerned whether I would be disciplined, be able to get up in the morning and follow a routine.
“Surprisingly, my productivity has increased. I am more relaxed and I even find time to have coffee with my friends.
“I begin my day nowadays at 6.30am and work straight through till 11.30am. I begin again at 3.30pm and work for as long as I want to. During my free period I can show my art works to friends or just relax.”
Around 15 years ago he accidentally came upon a technique of working with photographs he calls ‘positively paper’. He experimented with paper of different colours and positives of different shades to create a three-dimensional image that is a “reflection of a mood or a feeling and not necessarily representative of the original scene,” explained Arthur.
“A typical image is made up of several layers of film on paper and glass which I change according to the effect I want to create.
“When I photograph there are lot of external elements involved. We see in colour. Our mood, lights and sounds are all contributing factors that defines a great situation.
“But what your eye sees is not always what is captured on film. And, as an artist, I am trying to recreate that mood in my photograph.”
As well as winning Bahraini praise for his work he is now receiving feedback from abroad after launching a website last week. His website has received hits from the UK, US, Canada, Australia and India.
Mr D’Souza added: “I am now planning my life in six month spurts. In the next few months I will be concentrating on my website, creating new material and is holding an exhibition after the summer.
“The key difference in my life today is that I am doing what I want to do and not what I am being told to do. Personally, I would not like to go back to the corporate world … but the question is; how long can one survive on art?”
To see more of Arthur’s work visit his website www.arthurdsouza.com/home.html
By Anasuya Kesavan
anasuyak7@gmail.com
