Effecting change, one snap at a time

Through this process of change, have newspapers lost sight of their main goal…to effect change?

I got into photojournalism expecting to change the world. But that was over 20 years ago, and the newspaper — The City Tab — has long since gone to the recycle bin in the sky.

Throughout my career I have witnessed a number of changes; the shift from analog SLR cameras, to multiple-framing motor-driven analog SLR cameras, to the current multi-frame SLR digital cameras. Newspaper themselves have undergone a massive transition. Black and white have given way to a spectrum of colours, and articles have clipped down to meet the shortening time and attention spans of the current urban reader.

But through this process of change, have newspapers lost sight of their main goal…to effect change?

Some two decades ago I was on assignment on Mysore Road, when I saw school children hefting heavy school bags, making their way across a water-logged, filthy drain. They had deigned to take off their shoes as they made their way through the water. Once on the other side, they put on their shoes and trotted off to school.

I found out they did this six days a week. There was another route that avoided the drain, but that would add an extra three kilometres to their journey…so through the water they went. This was one picture I was not going to miss, so I shot a couple of frames and returned to the office.

The next day the picture appeared on the front page of my newspaper. The then acting Governor Justice, Shanmughasundaram Mohan, called my office the same morning and asked my editor if I could accompany him and his team of advisors to the spot where the picture was taken.

On reaching the spot, Justice Mohan saw first hand the plight of the children, and even had a word with some of them. He then asked his advisors to request the Madras Engineering Group (MEG) to build a floating bridge at the spot, as soon as possible. The MEG reacted in record time finishing the ordered job in 24-hours flat. Later that month a permanent bridge was constructed for these children.

The fact that it was my photograph that effected this change filled me with a sense of pride few moments have been able to duplicate. This was what I, as a journalist, was meant to do.

A few days ago, a friend and I were discussing how newspapers ignore reportage on the state of basic civic amenities. The bridge over the gap between civic authorities and the end user remains at the bottom of the ravine. Let us hope that in the future, not only will that bridge be rebuilt, but that it provides a path to a greener, healthier city

Stage-managing life through a lens

Staging a picture is all right, provided your reader knows it has been staged

There’s more truth to some clichés than one might think. Take, for instance, the barber shop as the centre of rumour and conversation. The barber’s truly is one of the best places to get a feel for what’s going down around the city, and what’s shaking the proverbial gum tree.

On my last trip to the salon, I happened to overhear a conversation between two young men. They were discussing the day’s newspapers. As I was lathered up for my shave, they wondered whether photographers staged photographs to fit the story.

Babu (my barber) smiled at me when he realized that I was listening in to their discussion. You see, Babu knows what I do for a living, and he seemed amused about the scene unfolding.

One of the young men claimed to know a photographer who ‘admitted’ to staging pictures to meet ‘readers’’ needs; a statement that brought an unhappy grunt from his compatriot. They then took it upon themselves to pick at every picture in the papers. From sport to civic, they assumed the shape of two vultures sizing up a not-long-since-dead treat.

Back in 2004, I took a photograph of a victim of the Bhopal gas tragedy. It was a posed shot, that aimed to show what the girl had lost due to the gross negligence of an industrial behemoth. It was staged, yes, but it won me the World Health Organization (WHO) award on disability in 2005.

I can recall hundreds of staged pictures taken by top international photographers, some are dead, but their images live on.

Staging a picture is all right, provided your reader knows it has been staged. If you lead him to believe that the circumstances in and around the picture are natural, then you’re basically lying…and we all know where that gets you.

Even legendary photographers are not immune to the short-cut that staging provides. Robert Capa’s photograph in 1936 showing a solider falling to the ground after being shot from behind, fetched him some of the most prestigious awards. But it all came crashing down last year, albeit posthumously, when a Spanish newspaper that had recovered the original film sequencing the falling solider realised that the picture was staged.

Babu tapped me on the head to let me know that was done with embellishing nature’s work. I got up from the chair and headed towards the two men. I introduced myself and learned that their names were Somashekar and Dilip. They were surprised to know that most photographs that won awards in this day and age were staged.

Staging a picture may not be the ideal option for a photographer, but it can often be a magnificent canvas on which to capture the emotion and texture of life that can at times get lost in a natural shot.

Karma chameleons: Sensitivity and the photographer

It is a question I am often asked: “Do photographers have an emotional side that brims over when they cover events that claims the lives of people?” In fact, it was only last week that this was asked of me again. The answer is that photographers are more emotional than your average Joe, who runs the rat race on a routine track, mimicking a well-oiled machine.
The question, however, did transport my mind back to two events that shook me and those around me. One was the plane crash on February 14, 1990 which claimed more than 90 lives, and the second took place at Charkhi Dadri — a mid-air collision between Saudi Arabian Flight 763 and an Air Kazakhstan Flight 1907, which left no survivors, killing 349. On both occasions, I was ‘un’fortunate enough to reach the epicentre of the carnage before other photographers. Also, one can’t help but remember the nightmarish scenarios thrown up by communalism; a pot far too often stirred by those political machinations that claim to prevent the broth boiling over.The only answer I had, to the query, was, “We [photographers] have a very big heart and that is why we keep doing what we do.” The questioner nodded, but looked at me rather quizzically. I explained to him that a photographer covers a human tragedy, or attempts to, without sympathy or bias, unlike the writer who has the option of detaching himself from the scene, far too often geographically. The photographer has to be ‘kissing distance’ away from the dead and maimed, but yet be stoic in his documentation of the scene.

The photographer has to be ‘kissing distance’ away from the dead and maimed, but yet be stoic in his documentation of the scene.

During the 1990 crash, I photographed rescue workers removing the remains of a young girl, charred beyond recognition. At the time, the image before me had not impact on my psyche. It was much later, as I was making the prints that the gorgons in the image emerged and emblazoned themselves in my mind. It is something I will take with me to the grave.
This is every photographer’s Dharma in this Karma, and if given another chance, in another Karma, to perform the same Dharma, for most photographers, the answer will be a vociferous ‘no’.

Let there be light

The dark city streets hide a number of demons

During a discussion over lemonade with my fellow journo friends, it came to light that the city streets can be safe at night, if they were well illuminated. An elderly member of the group started by saying how he had been an eyewitness to a mobile snatch-and-run incident in the Indiranagar area, where the victim was a woman in her teens. Now this is an upmarket and up-marked area by civic authorities.
As the discussion carried on from one incident to another, the dim lights in the smoky bar started to get brighter. Another friend added that during the 70s and 80s women in the city could freely walk the streets, even in the darkest of places without being troubled by shadow attackers or stray dogs of whom one finds in large numbers, as the city has grown from a garrison fort to one where monkey-top roofs have given way to multiplexes, with tech-filled, ear-plugged human robots.
The immediate thought that crossed my mind was the superb street light conditions fotog’s had in the 80s. My memory raced back to a rain picture I had taken for a leading English daily, and some midnight fires and spot-crime scenes, without the help of a strobe. These images tell a tale of their own, since for any good journalism a picture requires a sense of aura to keep the reader’s view fixed to the image.
Over the past two decades, as the city grew from one phase to another, the civic authorities have not been able to upgrade the civic amenities at an equal pace, or rather they have preferred to turn a Nelson’s Eye on these very basic needs of a growing metropolis.
I, for one, have missed most of the city’s growth over the past 15 years or so, as I moved to the nation’s capital for better career growth. I returned to see the city’s backyards cramped for space, vanishing lung space, bad roads, paucity of water, and to top it all, badly lit lanes.
In my opinion, using the recent sanction of Rs22,000 crore for the development of the ever-bulging city, the civic bodies should look to brighten the streets which will enable the night walkers to walk free from stalking and being barked at, and at the same time provide sufficient light for fotogs like me to take a decent image without the use of my strobe.
The last thing I will like to add is that if the streets are well lit, working women in this 24x7 city will be able to take their night back with pride, rather than the present scenario where they are forced to hide by chide.

Look, the painting’s finally on the walls

Could it be true? The city’s public walls are being dressed up in robes of colour? Well, if the BBMP’s new initiative is anything to go by then true it certainly is. The corporation has given over the city’s walls to a team of artists, hoping that the images on them will deter those who feel a wall’s primary use is as a urinal.
But hidden within this artistry is a photographer’s muse. Those of us who have spent time on the streets photographing the city, as it went from sleepy town to bustling metropolis, have watched the imagery change, but not get more vibrant. Shades of green have given way to the harsh greys of the concrete jungle and all its structural trappings. It is in that light, that this new initiative is so appealing. Colour is making a comeback into our lives.
In 2003, when I was working with an leading Bhopal-based English daily, the then district collector, Anurag Jain, began a similar move to paint the city’s walls with civic awareness messages. The seed had many takers, but after he moved on the ides was shelved, for reasons best known to the white-collared officers.
In Bangalore, the message on the walls will be religious and also feature scenic spots promoting tourism, rather than conveying a social message. While in Bhopal, school children were given free paints and brushes to showcase their artistic talent, here the BBMP has tied up with the Ken School of Art for the talent.

Picture courtesy - Anantha Subramanyam K. DNA

Most of the artists working on the walls are those who have lost their jobs to under the wheels of the modernisation juggernaut. They were the ones for whom computers never replaced oil paints, and whose talents can only be seen in the huge film cut-outs and billboards, that met their demise nearly a decade ago.
It is nice of the BBMP to use this artistic talent for civic use, but I would have been happier had the message been social rather than touristy. It will also add more value if the BBMP thinks on the lines of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation to induct children artists to do the work on these larger than life canvases, thus ensuring that the future generations are expose to public art.
But all said and done, the present BBMP commissioner’s decision to make the erstwhile ‘Garden City’ look presentable is commendable. One only hopes that his successor does not shelve the idea. After all not only does it benefit the lay passer by, but also helped those in my profession cut through the drab days with a splash of colours and ray of art sorely missing form modern day life.

OP, the man who started it all

Today, the world celebrates World Photography Day, but few actually know where the seeds of the day were sown. In fact, it was an Indian photographer based in New Delhi, OP Sharma (fondly known as OP) who was the man instrumental in getting over 150 photography clubs and associations across the globe to celebrate August 19, as the birthday of photography.
All through the year, all over the world, holidays and birthdays are celebrated. However, no one ever designated a day for photography; until OP came along. From research work and entertainment, to documentation and art, photography is everywhere.World Photography Day was launched in 1991 by the Indian International Photographic Council (IIPC) of which OP Sharma is the founder member. Later, in 2002-03, the Photographic Society of America (PSA) with its multitude of members across the world, joined in and also started to observe August 19 as Photography Day. The first official photograph ever taken was on August 19, 1839. Photography was arguably one of the most important inventions of the 19th Century. Had this unique medium not been invented, our world would have been much darker than it is today. Let us not forget this fact and let World Photography Day see light! As for the news photographers working in modern-day newspapers, their task is often tedious, sometimes life-threatening (as in covering a war zone, or tracking a flu pandemic), but it is also always rewarding.
The photographer stakes his life on every image; especially the one that you, the reader, see every morning. Photography has grown manifold over the past 170 years, and today every family in the world has a picture adorning a wall or a shelf in their home. The medium is such that everyone can become professional, thanks to the advent of the digital camera. The future will see further enhancements in photo technology, but whatever it may bring, one thing will remain unchanged: The emotions one feels when one looks at a photograph. So this World Photography Day, sit back, take out an old family album and let your mind wander through its memories. After all that’s what photography is all about: capturing history as it happens. On a footnote, it is important to stress that photography is an art, and as such, it’s high time the Government of India recognises it as a fine art. After all, capturing emotions takes a level of skill.