Clad in a all-black, he spoke about silencing the colors, his love with black and whites, his addiction towards digital cameras & technology and left the audience yearning for more.

Raghu rai and Sudanand menon

The event started with the introduction of Photographic Society of Madras(PSM). After which Raghu Rai entered the auditorium to a standing ovation. The audience comprised of renowned photographers, members of PSM, students from journalism and vis comm. schools and quite a few members from Chennai Weekend Clickers (CWC).

Mr.Shankar, president of PSM, made a short dutiful introduction and gave the podium to Raghu Rai. Raghu Rai invited Sadanand Menon (from Asian College of Journalism). Sadanand obliged. Sadanad automatically took on the role of an interviewer and thus began a very spontaneous, conversational talk.

Following are my notes from the event (it is not verbatim):

How it all started for him

His dad had a government job and was reporting to a chief engineer. So Raghu’s dad always wanted him to become an engineer. And Raghu did become and engineer. He worked for the government for some years and got bored of the 9 to 5 job. He quit and went to stay with his brother Paul, who was a photographer at that time. He went along with his brother for an assignment and that is where he got his first shot – of the famous Baby Donkey. That picture got published in London Times, half page!

His love for digital photography and technology

Raghu started by admitting his love for the new technology and his addiction with the digital camera. He was on an assignment and had taken his digital and film camera with him. Before shooting for the assignment, he wanted to warm up and started shooting with his digital camera with no intention of getting any usable shots. But that was the moment that changed everything. That was when he absolutely fell in love with the digital camera and power of technology. He went on to say how blinded he was with the film camera, as one might not know how the composition or the photo would turn out to be, till the time one enters the dark room and develops the prints. Some artists believe that is a critical element that a creator goes through, but he thought that to be blinding. With a digital camera, one could color-correct a photo in the field and find out if the particular shot is good enough.

Printing technology is another of his favourite technological developments in the area of photography. In the olden days he used to develop his own prints and most of the times he would over/under-expose a photo and he would have to re-print several times to get the right output and he would have to the same elaborate process again to get another print. “But nowadays, with the printing technology, it is so easy to color-correct and clicking on ‘print’ delivers the required output. You save the file and click on ‘print’ again to get another copy.”

Creativity in photography

“In creativity, brightest minds have no place… You have to think from the heart” – Raghu Rai

He narrated a story…
He was interacting with school students about creativity in photography, when one student raised his hand and said “you are talking about creativity, can you tell us what exactly should we do to be creative… what are the rules?” and Raghu replied “Assume I toss all of you in the air and there are two rules to be followed when you land back on the ground -
1. Don’t step on other’s footsteps. Do something different. Don’t follow anybody’s footsteps
2. Don’t step where you have already stepped before.”

He said the same thing to the audience – be creative, think different. Don’t shoot the same way something has already been shot before.

‘Point of Reference’(PoR) photos

For ealier photographers the PoR were the painters before them, one could see that in the sort of photographs that were produced – landscapes, portraits etc. The photographers who came after that took last-generation photographers’ photos as PoR.

“The reference-points pictures should be shot and taken off one’s system. But don’t follow that always, create you own points”- Raghu Rai

Democratization of Photography

True, nowadays everyone has the facility to get a camera and shoot, the only way one can differentiate from this is “self-search”. One needs to push the limits and ask for more. Some photographers settle for little, they receive little and some ask for more and they receive more.

“That is the divine gift, you ask and God will bless you with it”

Which photo should one select?

He wanted to do a book on photos of Indira Gandhi and as he was taking lot of photos, three times everyday, he had problems selecting the right ones out of the collection. So he made a rule.
A photo should stand the test of time.
Meaning, even if someone looks at a photo after decades, without knowing the importance of a person/subject, the viewer should still be able to understand the importance (or evoke the needed emotion) of the photo.
Black & White vs Color photos

Every color evokes certain emotions. It is very hard to get great image in color from daily life, because each color has emotions and since a daily life photo might have so many distracting colors, which will distract viewers from the emotions that you a photographer wishes to convey. If you want to show only the emotion of the subject – raging clouds, hardworking people etc. you need to silence the colors – that is when B&W comes handy.

Raghu made it clear he is not a big fan of archival photography which do not capture the expression and energy.

Good photos vs bad photos

There was a question during the Q&A session, which was “You say that archival photos are not good photos, but for the person who took that photograph, it might be of emotional attachment, how then can you say that a archived photo is not good?”

Raghu replied saying that he never said that all archival photos are bad, some of them capture the energy and experience – those are good. And if an archival photo brings back memories and emotions to the one who took it, it is a good photo for that particular person. But if the photo stands the test of time and everyone is able to relate to the experience and emotion in that photo, then it is a good photo to all!

About using technology to process/touch photos

It is absolutely OK to touch/process a photo, there is nothing wrong with it. One should use the technology for ones advantage. If someone says we should see grains and there should be noise, he says it is “nostalgic nonsense”.
He went on to display many photos from his works and told the story and experience behind each of them. Perhaps, I will write about that later in another post.

It is an amazing learning experience for upcoming photographers to be able to interact with someone like Raghu Rai. I wish to thank PSM for organizing such a wonderful event.

Raghu Rai and Shankar (president of PSM)

Some of the quotable quotes from Raghu Rai during this event:

“Silence the colors”

“The reference-points pictures should be shot and taken off one’s system. But don’t follow that always, create you own points”

“Photography is about capturing experience and energy”

“Buddha, they say, waited and he got enlightenment… And I’ve had my moments of waiting”

“every inch of space and every element in a frame matters”

“In creativity, brightest minds have no place… You have to think from heart”

cheers

When I broke that news at home, mom went silent. She was cutting the onions. “Where did you leave it?” was the question. I tried to play it down and said “must have left it in the cafeteria, it’s not a big deal…”. Came the angry reply “It’s a Tupperware, it is a big deal!”. I did not know if the tears were from cutting the onions or the Tupperware AND she had a knife in her hand too. The seriousness of the situation finally sank in. I told her that I will find the one lost “sheep” and bring it back to the “fold”.

I lost my sleep over it that night, “will I find it?? Or…”. Only if Tupperwares came with theft insurance!! sigh! Anyways, the next day I walked up to the house-keeping staff in the cafeteria and asked if they found a green “bowl” on one of the tables. Thankfully, they had found it and kept it safe. She handed that over to me and it was one of the happiest moments!

I don’t take Tupperware with me anymore lest I lose it and I have to lose my sleep over it! Close shave!

I stepped inside and surprised to see that it was run by an Italian couple. Very polite and friendly people.  I ordered for a strawberry shake and a cheese cake. There was a Russian couple sitting there and the owners were having a friendly conversation with them. My order was served and it was yummy. I took my sweet time eating the cheese cake and taking in the serenity of the place. It also has free wi-fi, in case you want to sit there and update your facebook status or tweet!

The Story of the name and the place!

As I was about to leave and asked for the check, Kurt (one of the owners) saw my camera and asked if I am a pro-photographer or was it my hobby, we started chatting and I asked him the story behind this cafe and weird name “Vivenda Kafe”. Here it is…

Since Goa has a prominent Portugal influence, the owners wanted to get a word in Portuguese that would mean “home” and that is what “Vivenda” means, it means “Villa”.

So, the next question was “why call it Kafe and not Cafe?”.

It was started by Italians (they have the map of Italia on the wall, see the first pic), Valerie and Kurt (VK), they are originally from Italy but now settled in Goa. They wanted the name of the cafe to have the same initials “V&K”, hence the name “Vivenda Kafe”.

Kurt even told me that all the chairs in the cafe had “VK” inscription on them.

The food, ambiance and the story was enough for me to make that most memorable cafe I’ve ever been to!

How do you find it?

It is on the fort Aguada road, Candolim area. From outside it looks like this

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How it all started…

Hindu rules the English daily market in Tamil Nadu. Times Of India (TOI) was a very late entrant.

Facts:

TOI is a more of a page3 daily, you can get all the news on entertainment, fame etc and also some news on what matters – the serious national news stuff…! (what matters is a perception!)

whereas The Hindu is the exact opposite of TOI, which according to TOI puts people to sleep, and that was the start of serious ad-war! TOI drew first blood with the campaign – Wake up to The Times Of India!

TOI campaign
wake up to the Times Of India

As an underdog(TOI), it was important for TOI to grab the attention of The Hindu and that is exactly what happened. The Hindu retaliated…

The Hindu retaliation

and this

Then TOI came up with this:

UPDATE (10th Feb 2012)

UPDATE: 12th Feb, 2012

waiting for the next move…

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So you are afraid to ask anyone, and no one gives it for free! There are only two other options, either you pay for the advice or just don’t take any. Paying for advice is consulting. And in consulting they always draw charts, so here -

I knelt and looked downward, afraid to look at his face. He continued “Do not be afraid; I am Gabriel and I am here to convey a message to you: You have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”. I humbly replied “But how is this possible, I am not even married and what might people say, I don’t think my family is ready to deal with this right now”. I continued “I’m sorry but I will bring disgrace to my family, the people… ” I started sobbing “…the people will speak bad things about me and the family”.

Gabriel seemed upset and I thought to myself, it is so easy to obey the commandments but when it comes to sacrificing ones life for a good cause, it becomes hard. I wanted to stop him and tell him to have Lord’s will in me but I couldn’t stop thinking about the shame this will bring to me and my family. This is when mom walked into the room, she couldn’t see Gabriel, saw me kneeling down and told me “Shira, you can say your prayers later, are you done dusting the table?”.

Gabriel turned and started walking away and I heard him say “Lord, 4 down, last one to go. Please, let Mary accept your plan”

Disclaimer: Did not mean to offend any religious sentiment!

Other Short Stories

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Like I said during the last Goa Trip

 ”If you want to know your friends, travel with them. If you want to know yourself, travel alone!”. 

So it was for the Yercaud trip too. I got to discover a lot about my co-travellers, their driving and how each of us complement each other. Plan was to go with my college friends but plans change. One of the guys pulled out and I pulled in Anand (aka Andy) – ex-colleague and very good friend. Other two guys I’ve known from my college days – Murali and Navneeth. The former works in the US and the latter finished his masters there.

What I learnt about these guys:
Andy – Safe, Fast day driver and a human GPS
Navneeth – very Safe, fast-enough driver. OH, and super trip planner
Murali – Keeps the group alive with jokes and his enthusiasm
I – Safe, fast night driver. Photos and blogs.

*Safety not as perceived by the passengers, but as per record – technically.

All of us love the outdoors and trekking.

Read about the Yercaud Trip here.

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This is what I used as the light source for writing “2012″

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