The drizzle became a downpour, as levees broke across North Karnataka and floods washed away a million hopes and dreams. Newspapers awoke to the calamitous news beaming from every TV, and the race to find the best angle to a story already told began.
It was then that my colleague Mohan Kumar BN came up with an idea that eventually proved to be brilliant, in that it gave us the edge over our friendly rivals. “Send us out there,” he told me, “and let’s go now.” He, of course, became the first to volunteer to go out into the maelstrom, as it were.
Over the next six days, DNA’s photojournalists ran, walked, drove, and paddled their way across North Karnataka, pipping everyone to the pictorial post. Images flooded in from Raichur, Bellary et al, encompassing the human tragedy that unfolded.
Sending photographers into the field is only half the job, ensuring that their images get through to the office via water-logged lines and unreliable power supplies is the other half. Most of the districts they visited had lost electricity, and many villages had been sent back to the pre-Internet days
The day after Mohan left, the full extent of the flood damage became apparent and we decided to send in another photographer. Anantha Subramanyam K was rushed to the site in an IAF chopper ferrying relief material. Road were virtually non-existent.
And as the images ‘flooded’ in another problem began to rear its irksome head. When selecting photographs that depict a natural catastrophe, a photo editor must keep two things in mind: the context of the picture and the Breakfast Test. The context must suit the news; gratuitous images of sorrow and devastation don’t always match the context. The Breakfast Test is quite simple. You imagine a family sitting at their breakfast table, and then ask yourself: “Would you like to see that image while you’re eating your breakfast?” If not then the picture doesn’t make the front page (there are exceptions to this rule, however, but that’s another column).
Ensuring that our paper stood out from the rest of the print pack was a tough task; it was one of those times when everyone is bringing their A-game to the table. I learned the art of picture editing from Julie Elman, former picture editor at The Missourian, and AFP Picture editors Emmeanuel Dunnand and Christophe Archambault, and this proved to be time well spent. All three told me that picture editors have to chop, crop, and many times drop good images to suit readers’ interests. And with photo essays this maxim is even more important as one has to look at the overall sequencing of images, which in the final output should complement each other.
After Anantha and Mohan, Nishant Ratnakar and Selvaparakash L were dispatched to capture the human angle to this catastrophe. They did so with aplomb.
An editor is only as good as his team, and I salute my boys and the job they did during these dark hour in Karnataka’s history. I also take this opportunity to thank the IAF and others who pitched in to help us out.
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