A black and white picture exhibition in Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNAMA) quietly but powerfully disrupts the noise, with a perfection, airbrush images, and filtered realities in a world. Under every smile, Smile Train India, the world’s largest centenary charity organization, and photographer Komal Bedi Sohal, has come up with a series of photographs of children born with Fank lips and palate. But these are not pictures of sorrow or medical condition; They are stories of hope, courage, fickleness and identity.
“The exhibition is not about provoking mercy; it’s about pride,” Komal says, who infection from an advertising creative director to a visual narrator. “When I pick up the camera, I don’t want to tell a sad story. I want to tell a true story and is full of light, hope and strength.”
“The advertisement taught me how to communicate an idea in a few seconds,” she says. But the lens through which she now communicates is more intimate. “The goal is different; it is not about selling a product, but about restoring dignity,” she says. ,
Photo on performance at Knama Exhibition | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
It is woven through each picture on dignity performance. Some children who are photographed are barely month old. Other teenagers are looking for their way through dance, sports or materials. On one side of the gallery, newborns are recovering from surgery, shot in a cool hospital rooms. On the other hand, older children pose fickle, vibrant, confidently in a public park.
Cooperation with Smile Train India began with a conversation but quickly became a calling. “When I started learning more about the smile train, I was surprised,” remember Sohal. “It is not only about correcting a cleft but about the creation of life.”
The smile train approach echoed deeply with him. “Instead of glamor, he wanted real, raw, honest story. This was what I also wanted.”
For Komal, sympathy was not just a approach. It was a technique. “I never walked with a big flash or intimidating gear,” she explains. “For pre-op photographs, I used natural light in hospital rooms. No tools, no shine. Just light through a dusty window.”
Photo on performance at Knama Exhibition | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Each frame was the result of calm faith. “I was sitting next to the mothers so that their children were not scared. I played with the children, talked to the children, showed them how the camera works. It was never a ‘point and shoot’.” It was a process of building the trust. ,
During the morning of January, was shot at Sanjay Park in Delhi. “The children were bundled in warm clothes. But as we played, talked, and got hot, they rested. Some said that they preferred to dance. A beauty was influenced. Another loving cricket. A boy was studying horticulture. So I made images that reflected them, not their faces.”
What is the absence of attack in the exhibition. “I insisted on shooting in black and white. I didn’t want to distraction of color. The concentrated feeling, gestures, personality had to be on.”
The purpose of Komal was what he should say to “naked pictures”, raw, honest, unfrained. “We live in the world with filters and retaching. I wanted to remind people that beauty really lies, not perfection.”
Kannama’s curtain of the exhibition is appealing that the paintings are not met by age or medical history, but by gestures, light and mood. In a wall, children are offered with expressive hands. Plays with another eye contact. Some are grouped by movement – such as ball -playing children. It is a small space, but has been beautifully used to create maximum emotional effects.
Among many people, Komal tells a moment when a young girl first saw her picture and went to the frame, put her cheek against her, and just standing there, holding her. “That image, the moment that is the exhibition,” she says.
Knama, Number 145, DLF South Court Mall, Select Citywalk Mall, Saket District Center, Sector 6, Saket; By 6 July; 10.30 am to 6.30 pm; Monday closed
Komal Bedi Sohal Knma with his collection of photos on performance in Delhi. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Published – 26 June, 2025 05:57 pm IST