Sanket Khuntale describes Pritisangam Gardens in Karad, India as “a go-to hangout spot for everyone in town”. Khuntale lives in Mumbai now, but visits the gardens as a ritual every time he goes home to Karad. On the day he took this photo, in 2017, he was there to meet friends for an evening stroll. The gardens lie against the banks where the Krishna and Koyna rivers meet, and the group walked by the water, talking, admiring their surroundings and stopping for street food.
One of the group was Khuntale’s childhood friend Tejali, who had been stopping to pick flowers along the way. Khuntale suggested taking a photo with his mobile phone. He positioned himself behind Tejali’s head to take the shot, then later rotated the image 180 degrees.
“The beauty of this angle is the distortion, where the important parts of the image – her beautiful hair and the yellow flowers – look even more prominent and vibrant,” Khuntale explains. “The flowers are called bhringraj, a common weed in India that is thought to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and promote hair growth. It was a total coincidence that I placed the flowers in her hair; I didn’t realise the connection until the next day.”
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Reflecting on the image eight years later, Khuntale notes that his friend looks almost like “a tree in human form – her body the trunk and her hair like branches with beautiful flowers. Every time I look at it, I feel like nature is smiling back at me.”