The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

The joy of photo journalism
by Subhash Sapru

PHOTOJOURNALISM has, over the years, been enriching the media as it is truly said that a picture is worth a thousand words. With the advancement in photography and the growing number of photo-enthusiasts, photojournalism has not remained confined only to the professional photojournalists for whom it may be their means of livelihood. There may be many amateurs who click as good pictures as any seasoned professional photojournalist would shoot. Even the pictures which can be appropriately catagorised as those of photojournalism clicked by amateurs, remain with them and do not find a place for public viewing due to lack of information as to where to present them or they do not have resources to pursue their interest.

The photo enthusiasts, who have an aptitude to shoot excellent story-telling pictures, have ample scope to promote their interest in photojournalism, even if they are not working for any media. Contrary to the common belief that photojournalism is basically action photography or the one which relates to the images of sports, it also has the element of human interest which matters a lot. Any human activity which reflects high potential of photojournalism adds to the quality of the picture.

At exhibitions and contests of photojournalism, the journalistic value of the picture carries more weight than its pictorial quality.

A contrived situation which misrepresents the truth or any situation set up for the purpose of photography are not acceptable in exhibitions of photojournalism pictures. Photojournalism pictures can be of spot news, where no advance preparation is made before clicking the photographs such as sports, wars, criminal activities and scenes of human interest. These can be in a sequence with informative content and emotional impact.

There are a number of photographic organisations, including camera clubs, have come up at many places in the country and abroad. They hold contests and exhibitions of photojournalism pictures. These exhibitions are open to both professional and amateur photographers. The pictures are judged by experts and experienced photojournalists and outstanding ones are accepted for display. A few of these get awards. Such exhibitions provide an opportunity to the photo enthusiasts to compete with others at national and international levels and get their works evaluated. At the international level, some organisers keep separate sections for those prints which have been clicked as well as processed by the entrants themselves and those which are clicked by the entrant, but have been processed commercially. The judging for these two sections is done separately.

Interestingly, the rate of the acceptance of pictures and slides at such exhibitions vary between 25 per cent and 33 per cent. In case not even a single picture of any entrant is accepted, one should not lose heart. It means that the pictures were below standard in the given situation or among the entire lot in which these had competed. But the acceptance of even a single picture is encouraging as the picture will be displayed among those of experienced photographers.

An annual world press photo contest is also held by the Board of the World Press Photo Foundation, Amsterdam. The Board promotes photojournalism by providing a common meeting point to the global photojournalist community. The contest has different categories like the spot news pictures, general news, people in the news, daily life, portraits, sports, science and technology and nature and the environment.

Anyone can send pictures for contests in photojournalism prints and slides. The pictures should have informative content and may be in sequences as in the case of photo essay. Although the pattern of judging may vary within the country and abroad because of a number of factors like socio-economic or political issues and traditions, it is always a big challenge for photojournalists to compete their images of human interest with those of high impact sports pictures.

In case one has to send photojournalism pictures to any international exhibition abroad, one should preferably send those pictures which reflect the culture and traditions of our country. Such pictures would gain points not only because of their different content, but also because these would add to the variety of the exhibition. But the photographers should not compromise on journalistic value of the picture. Experience has also taught me that although the pictorial quality of photojournalism print does not hold much weight in such exhibitions, it certainly enhances it overall impact thus enabling one to add a few more words to the already “a thousand words picture.”

There is one word of caution. Like a newspaper Editor who never likes to spoil the morning tea of the readers by putting on the front page a picture showing a person crushed in a road accident or someone hanging oneself in an attempt to commit suicide, the entrant of such photojournalism exhibitions should also desist from entering similar pictures as generally these do not go by the basic concept of the exhibitions which are not only informative, but also aim at promoting art besides entertaining the viewers. Let’s share the thrill and emotional impact of photojournalism.

Art & Culture
Iron art — a form of home interiors
by Suparna Saraswati

THE Art Folio Centre for Arts, Chandigarh, was the venue for Harminder Singh’s exhibition titled “Iron Art” displaying contemporary styled interiors largely including furniture items. It drew an “unexpectedly” enthusiastic response from the people of the city. Even though wrought iron interior furnishing happens to be the most fashionable and upmarket home-designing items yet, Harminder Singh’s work carries a mark of being distinct and aesthetically appealing in form as well as content.

In spite of being a qualified executive with a postgraduate degree in science, it was his keen interest in pursuing art designing that compelled him to give up a secure Markfed job and establish a small workshop in Industrial Area some months back. “I always enjoyed working with my hands. Even as a child I used to spend my afternoons creating objects of my own imagination with paper etc. And even when I opened my industrial unit here, the disposable scrap that got left behind for me became ample material to vent out my artistic instincts. My workers would be amused to see rubbish getting tampered with and strange looking objects being churned out,”quips the artist about his beginnings in iron interior designing.

To understand the kind of designing Harminder Singh is involved in it would be of relevance to state some of his philosophical notions on Indian mythological deities. The iron monger confidently admits that his show was auspiciously inaugurated by none other better suited for the job than Lord Ganesha himself.

“For me Ganesha is not merely a deity to be religiously revered. His unique form attributes admirable qualities and devotes a complete meaning of a worthwhile human existence. His elephant head is representative of tremendous intelligence, the body displays strength and the tiny mouse at Ganesha’s feet is a symbol of perseverence and diehard effort. Now, who could be more appropriate than Ganesha, the supreme force of the cosmic structure?”

Harminder Singh confesses that sometimes his creations are born from unintended drawings and casual scribblings such as his wall installation of ‘Mahalakshmi’ and the candle stand he calls ‘Adishakti’. “It is not a crisscross of wires, but an attempt to create something relevant as well as utilitarian in one’s daily life.” Undoubtedly, he has been able to do so in a very attractive and symbolic a manner. A few of his works reflect the exactness of his inner convictions and artistic compulsions. The rope trick lamp stand, the cane-look chairs, the Om shaped candle stands are some of the items which display Harminder Singh’s quest for a confluence of spiritual elevation and useful art projection. “I will always endeavour to make objects of interior furnishings that remain practical and appeal to one’s aesthetic sensibilities, not merely a abstract and art like.

Iron Art is indeed an assemblence of bruteness of matter with a beauty in its appearance. The moulding shapes created by Harminder Singh have proportion and colours that are in cognisance with his own demeanour — calm, humble and yearning.

Sight & Sound
Doordarshan’s unsporting life
by Amita Malik

IN the early days of broadcasting AIR had a solid team of sports commentators who had carved a niche for themselves. Pearson Surita and Berry Sarbadhikary in Calcutta, A.F.S. Talyarkhan in Bombay, Melville de Mellow, Nobby Clarke, Surajit Sen and Devraj Puri, father of Narottam Puri, were accomplished and popular sports commentators. I am sorry I cannot remember anyone from the South because the Garrulous Vizzy used to operate from the North. These were fluent all-rounders, some of them were AIR newscasters who were connoisseurs of sport, who had their fan following, knew their games and were extremely competent.

But the Indian electronic media came into their own with the Asian Games it not only brought in Colour TV but also an international flavour and also Asian competition, led by NHK. The Japanese were envied by the whole world for their equipment and technical expertise. German experts, including cameramen, were brought in to help DD’s own enthusiastic young staff and I think we did pretty well on that occasion. Unfortunately, this element of specialisation got a bit dissipated later by internal politics, nepotism, corruption, including pilferage of raw stocks, moonlighting, sharp practices over advertisements (producers and cameramen are even reputed to have got large cuts for lingering too long on the ads, around a stadium), and the present over-use of ads intruding crudely into sports performances has done nothing to erase the impression in the minds of viewers that there is still some dirty work at the crossroads. DD’s lust for money at the expense of quality has shamed the so-called public broadcaster. Apart from that, the sports visuals in news bulletins quite often do not match what is being said by the newscaster, and so it goes on. DD’s monopoly, courtesy its membership of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, which seems to do precious little to monitor the inadequate quality of DD’s relay of international events, has even led sports lovers to contemplate filing PIL to stop DD robbing the tax-payer of his rights. Most sports lovers feel that DD is nothing but a big bully treading over everyone’s wishes and feelings, particularly those of viewers because of its governmental clout. Since nobody wants its programmes, instead of improving them and being content with its lower grade terrestrial monopoly, it wields the big danda to force cable operators to show DD on Prime channels and lets loose district magistrates and cops to spy on independent channels. There could be no bigger shame for Indian broadcasting. And Indian democracy.

So naturally everyone expected that DD would mess up the Olympic Games or what it calls the “Oh-Lum-Pic” Games. And sure enough, they did. Viewers are not interested in the Tu,Tu, Main, Main accusations going on between DD, the cable operators or “Mr Prithwish Nundy”. To them, the responsibility for the first day’s fiasco lies fairly and squarely on DD, which insisted on its monopoly and widely boasted that one could either go to Sydney or watch DD. Well, most viewers wished they could have gone to Sydney, because the much vaunted Sports Channel was invisible on Day One . As usual, DD carried the opening ceremony on the National Channel, the mostly invisible News Channel and the extremely shaky Metro Channel with the usual interruptions. On day 3, they were still showing the opening ceremony and nauseum and for lack of live footage, repeating the India-Argentine hockey match, in one case immediately after the first repeat, the day after. Then, as late as the 19th morning, almost the entire live relay came totally without sound. One does not know who chooses the items, but one set of studio commentators subjected us to endless bouts of boxing in which Indians did not figure, to interrupt at a very crucial moment an exciting football match involving Brazil, a team much admired in India. The studio commentators interrupted too much with their trite comments and some of the women had nothing much beyond their decorative saris. Star TV’s Amitabh Revi did splendidly in the way of interviews, including the Woodies. And someone should tell Mr Jasdev Singh, who seems to be a James Bond fan, that the sea creature shown in the opening water ballet was an octopus, and not octopussy!

The march past by the Indian contingent, in their saffron turbans, was sloppy and without spirit including some pot-bellied officials and only in the case of India, the chef-de-mission, Mr Mattoo, got honourable mention from the Indian commentator. Lucky the Jt Secy. Sports etc did not join in because they were gated in their hotel rooms and allegedly watched it all on TV like us poor viewers I am sure Australian TV did better.