Meet Tara Osan, our new video intern.
S We’re so glad you’re with us at MascallDance. I wonder if you could tell me what you're doing at school right now.
Tara I'm studying film, screen arts. I don't really have a specialization yet. I'm just doing everything at the moment.
S` What intrigued you about this placement?
Tara I really wanted it, because I'd be in the field, shooting and I really do enjoy that. And they needed someone to edit the footage and things like that which I thought was really cool.
S What is your connection with dance?
Tara None, honestly, because I have two left feet and pretty much no rhythm! But I enjoy photographing dancers. I’ve shot dancers and performers a lot, during high school and events. The composition is fun to play with, and the movement is fun to capture. Because dancers and performers like being photographed it’s a treat to photograph them. Whatever they do is always very beautiful. Even if I’m not that great at shooting performances, every image comes out looks like a piece of art!
I've always thought of dance as an art form. Shooting during the recent performance drove that idea so hard, because was so primal. You could see their connection with their own bodies and with the space around them. It made me feel I was back in the forest, and that this is what we are actually supposed to be doing. I think another reason why shooting dancers is fun is that you can just blend into the background. I really enjoy being like an invisible spectator, if that makes sense.
S I think you're an invisible participant.
Tara Yeah! You feel like you're part of the performance. You're trying to capture it. Documenting this amazing art that is so ephemeral in nature.
S And what would you say currently challenges you in your field?
Tara I'm not very extroverted, in general. I don't go up to talk to people. That's the hardest part right now. But sometimes it's kind of useful, like this internship, where being quiet and invisible is an advantage. I honestly haven't really struggled with anything apart from that because I really love what I do.
S Can you talk a bit about what inspires you?
Tara I'm very nature-oriented - mountains, the garden, the sunlight. I like to take inspiration from nature to my art. Photography and even the painting I used to do in high school.
Art is my connection to things that are much bigger than me. The work makes me feel connected to my inner self; it makes me feel spirituality in some way. I love artists. A lot of the art history that we studied inspires me to do more work. I really enjoy Egon Schiele’s work - and photography wise, I guess, my Dad - because he's a landscape/ journalist /photographer. So, I’ve grown up around cameras and nature. So that's my inspiration.
I'm from Delhi; I came just recently, after one year of online school (because of COVID). The Indian landscape is a lot dirtier. We used to go to the mountains, the Himalayas, a lot when I was a kid and I've been to pretty much all of India at this point, little villages. beaches, mountains. It is different.
Over here it's very picturesque; every mountain, every tree looks like it could be on a postcard. I don't know why, but that unsettled me a little bit when I came. I'm so used to people everywhere and tourists. There's such a sense of community in India that here, I feel very alone, even though I'm not. But it's also kind of nice, because you can do your own thing and nobody is being nosey about you.
S Here, people feel nature overpowering other aspects of urban community.
Yeah, it's stunning. When I came here and saw my first mountain, my reaction was Wow, that’s crazy. There’s a city and a mountain in the same place! I just love it.
S Thanks for letting us have a little glimpse of you, Tara, see you soon!