While painting is an interpretation of life and valuable for the insights it provides,
photography is the art of the moment, “the decisive moment” according to famous photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson. In the digital world where everyone is a
photographer, it is vital to distinguish and appreciate the works of the masters and identify what sets them apart. Ahead of World Photography Day, August 19,
Satyabrata Mishra pays tribute to legendary photojournalists
Oops! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.
Definition-wise photography stands for “drawing with light” but for a majority of photographers it is the art of capturing a moment, a precious moment, which once gone is gone forever, with the help of an instrument called camera. Ever since its invention camera has become a favourite pet. Painters achieved during the high noon of modernism significant applause by rendering exact duplicates of portraits or scenes, but the camera can replicate reality.
The journey of the camera started from that of a pinhole one to substantially high definition versions with high zoom, resolution and, most importantly, the digital format. Software has taken the place of the darkroom. A photographer is free from the hassles of getting rolls and storing them, no more processing in a darkroom, no more chemicals involved, but only simple software functions. The waiting period of lab processing is nearly over thanks to the home PC where you can get soft copies readily.
Intelligent digital camera has made everything easy and ready-at-hand: one can see and edit the pictures instantly and send them to any number of people. There is no fear of the rolls stock drying up, as CF cards and SD have innumerable storing space, and the later is of a reusable nature. The ease of deleting a snap see instantly in a LCD camera is reason for their popularity. Prior to the invention of digital cameras, people used to see and appreciate a good photograph but with a digital camera in hand, nowadays, everyone is a photographer.
Well many photographers worldwide have captured breathtaking photographs and left their indelible mark in the field of photography. Sunday POST sketches the life and achievements of a few.
THE DECISIVE MOMENT
“Photography is not like painting. There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative,” Cartier-Bresson told the Washington Post in 1957.
Cartier-Bresson was born in Chanteloup-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne, France in a wealthy family. His parents were textile manufacturers and supported him well in pursuing his hobby. Initially, he was learning music but later ventured into filmmaking and photojournalism.
In 1929, Cartier-Bresson’s air squadron commandant placed him under house arrest where the American expatriate Harry Crosby came to his rescue and kept Cartier-Bresson with him where Harry gifted Henri his first ever camera and both of them experimented with photography.
Cartier-Bresson achieved international fame for his coverage of Gandhi’s funeral in India in 1948. In 1950 he travelled to South India first visiting Tiruvannamalai, a town in Tamil Nadu where he photographed the last moments of Sri Ramana Maharishi, the Sri Ramana Ashram and its surroundings. A few days later he also visited and photographed Sri Aurobindo, the Mother and Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry.
In 1952 Cartier-Bresson published his book Images à la sauvette in French meaning The Decisive Moment. It included a portfolio of 126 photos from the East and the West.
He founded the Photo Agency Magnum Photos along with some top photographers around the world like Robert Capa, David Seymour, William Vandivert and George Rodger in 1947.
Cartier-Bresson died in Montjustin (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France) August 3, 2004 aged 95.
VOICE OF THE TRAGEDY-STRUCK
Raghu Rai born 1942 is an Indian photographer and photojournalist. He was a protégé of Cartier-Bresson who appointed Rai, then a young photojournalist, at Magnum Photos in 1977. Cartier-Bresson was a co-founder of Magnum Photos.
Raghu Rai was known for his Bhopal collection clicked during the union carbide mishap where he captured the grief and pain of people. For Greenpeace he has completed an in-depth documentary project on the chemical disaster which he covered as a journalist associated with India Today and on its lasting effects on the lives of gas victims. This work resulted in the book Exposure: A Corporate Crime and three exhibitions that toured Europe, America, India and South-East Asia after 2004, the 20th anniversary of the disaster.
Rai became a photographer in 1965 and a year later joined the staff of The Statesman newspaper. In 1976 he left the paper and became a freelance photographer. From 1982 till 1992 Rai was the director of photography for India Today. He has served on the jury for World Press Photo from 1990 to 1997. He is known for his books Raghu Rai’s India: Reflections in Colour and Reflections in Black and White.
‘Afghan girl’
Steve McCurry is an American editorial photographer best known for his photograph ‘Afghan Girl’ which originally appeared in National Geographic magazine.
McCurry took his most recognised portrait, in a refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan.
He took the photograph of her when she was living as a refugee in Pakistan during the time of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The image itself was named “the most recognised photograph” in the history of the National Geographic magazine and her face became famous the cover photograph on the June 1985 issue.
A true photojournalist, McCurry and the team National Geographic started searching for the girl and finally could locate the “Afghan Girl” Sharbat Gula, in 2002 after 17 years. Before the identification and during the search operation McCurry came across four identical girls and finally the X-Ray image of the eyes of the girl could confirm the true identity of Sharbat Gula. After the identification McCurry said, “Her skin is weathered; there are wrinkles now, but she is as striking as she was all those years ago.”
Steve’s love with India has yielded a great collection of photography which he had exhibited at many places in India and abroad. Steve has photographed in many cities including Delhi, Agra and Rajsthan.
‘Shark’
Robert Capa also called Endre Friedmann was born in a Jewish family of Júlia (née Berkovits) and Dezs Friedmann in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, October 22, 1913. Capa originally wanted to be a writer; however, he found work in photography in Berlin and grew to love the art. He had to conceal his Jewish name (Friedmann), and adopted the name ‘Robert Capa’ around this time. Cápa (‘shark’) was his nickname in school. He found it easier to sell his photos under the newly adopted “American”-sounding name. Over a period of time, he gradually assumed the persona of Robert Capa (with the help of his girlfriend Gerda Taro, who acted as an intermediary with those who purchased the photos taken by the “great American photographer, Robert Capa”). Capa’s first published photograph was of Leon Trotsky making a speech in Copenhagen on ‘The Meaning of the Russian Revolution’ in 1932.
Father of Photography
Ansel Adams, an American photographer, is widely known for his modern day representations that are made on calendars, posters and in books. He is best remembered as a prominent figure in black and white photography. Adams was a great environmentalist too. The multi-dimensional genius in Adams made him develop the zone system which determines proper exposure and adjusts the contrast of the final print. Adams was a guiding light in developing the field of photography with his teachings and practices of resolution, clarity and the importance of sharpness in images. He was a great lover of large-format cameras which were considered troublesome because of their size, weight, setup time, and film cost but their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his images. Adams is also greatly known for being the founder of Group f/64 which was a group of seven 20th century San Francisco photographers sharing a photographic style characterised by sharp-focused and carefully framed images seen through a particularly Western (US) viewpoint. Adams’ photographs are widely distributed around the world even today.
Ansel Adams was born February 20, 1902 in San Francisco, California to parents Charles Hitchcock Adams and Olive Bray Adams who were of an affluent family. Adams got his name from his uncle Ansel Easton. The Adams family originally hailed from New England and migrated from the north of Ireland in the early 18th century. Adams’ grandfather had set up a prosperous lumber business which his father continued but when it was Adams’ time to take up the family business he condemned the idea of cutting down redwood forests and declined to take up the job.
First woman Photographer of India
Homai Vyarawalla commonly known by her pseudonym ‘Dalda 13’ was India’s first woman photojournalist. Active from the 1930s, she retired in the early 1970s. In 2011 she was awarded Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of the Republic of India.
Born December 9, 1913 at Navsari, Gujarat, Vyarawalla, studied at Bombay University and Sir JJ School of Art. A Gandhian at heart, Vyarawalla imbibed the Mahatma’s teachings in her everyday life. She followed a simple, Spartan lifestyle, and lived in near-anonymity for years.
She started her career in 1930s and thereafter received notice at the national level when she moved to Mumbai in 1942 with her family, before moving to Delhi, where in the next 30 years she photographed many national leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Jinnah, Indira Gandhi and the Nehru-Gandhi family while working as a press photographer. During World War II, she started working for The Illustrated Weekly of India.
Homai Vyarawalla took a number of memorable photographs during her career. Her favourite subject was Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. Her first car’s number plate read ‘DLD 13’ bearing close resemblance to her pseudonym.
In 1970 she decided to give up photography lamenting the “bad behaviour” of the new generation of photographers.