State of Trance : Kulsai Dashera
A coastal ritual, a sea of transformation, a moment of surrender.
State of Trance: Kulsai Dashera is a lyrical exploration of devotion and identity in motion—where myth, light, and humanity converge on the shores of Tamil Nadu. Through these photographs, I attempt not to document, but to feel, to listen, and to become.
What unfolded before me was not merely an event to document, but a living, breathing theatre of trance, transformation, and deep devotion.
Kulasekarapattinam becomes unrecognizable during this festival. Thousands arrive, shedding their worldly identities, embodying deities, demons, and ancestral spirits. It is not performance—it is possession. A collective surrender. A passage. And through it all, the sea wind carries chants, drumbeats, and silence alike.As I moved through the crowd, camera in hand, I found myself standing somewhere between the seen and the felt. Somewhere between surrealism and the raw immediacy of the street. I was no longer composing images; I was being composed by them.That day, something shifted. I stopped trying to make photographs and began to let them happen to me. I learned to wait, to listen—to trust the invisible rhythms that shape both life and art. For the first time, I felt aligned. Eyes, heart, instinct: in sync. Perhaps this is what becoming an artist feels like—not a destination, but a fleeting moment of pure clarity.I’ve come to call this work a Lyrical Documentary. Not because of the photographs alone, but because of the process—one rooted in feeling rather than formula. These images are echoes of an experience that words can only orbit around.How do you photograph light that speaks in whispers? How do you frame a trance that dissolves all boundaries?
You don’t. You surrender to it.
And you hope that someone, somewhere, will feel it too.
