Photography Fantasy – I

August 25, 2015August 25, 2015 Dayanita SinghPhotography FantasyLeave a comment

Photography Fantasy is perhaps the most popular form of Photography today: the Selfie. Before the Selfie there was the studio portrait fantasy and the home studio fantasy, often meant just for the family album. The family album is the great source for understanding aspirations of a society. This beauty is from 1937 and possibly MS ! My most favorite photograph. It’s a novel, or has many novels inside it. Almost better when I don’t know for sure who it is.

Taken from “Madras Then, Chennai Now,” published by Rolli Books.

Submitted by dayanita on Sun, 08/23/2015 – 09:50

Dear Aspiring Photographers – IX

August 25, 2015August 25, 2015 Dayanita SinghDear Aspiring PhotographersLeave a comment

Dear Aspiring Photographers,

All that I have been saying about Cinema, Literature and Music is encapsulated in this brilliant essay: “Thou Art Sick – Intuition, the Inner Detective” by Aveek Sen in the Telegraph.

“I think that intuition, the detective in us,” says Lynch, “puts things together in a way that makes sense for us.” But this “inner knowning,” he adds, is hard to communicated to someone else.

Submitted by dayanita on Thu, 08/13/2015 – 16:26

DEAR ASPIRING PHOTOGRAPHERS – comfort zones – VIII

August 25, 2015August 28, 2015 Dayanita SinghDear Aspiring PhotographersLeave a comment

Dear Aspiring Photographers,

My third advice to you is to GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE. This is something I learned from Photojournalism, having to go into worlds that I otherwise may not have ventured into, and being open to all that CHANCE brings.

For example, I went to photograph Rahul Bajaj on a Fortune magazine assignment of Business Family portraits. He was shocked at the “little lady” Fortune had sent to photograph him. Anyway, the grandchildren were not back from school and he asked me to go visit his factory. I said Mr Bajaj, “I am a Family portrait photographer, I am not here to look at Factories,” and then I thought, why not, if he is asking me to. I went into the dispatch hall and my jaw dropped open. Over 10,000 scooters were in one hall waiting to go.

And there and then started my Factories obsession, which turned into Blue Book, in another “CHANCE”. Standing above a very high factory tower in a harness, I ran out of film, the sun had set, I had some color film in my bag, I thought I would shoot in color and print in BW. My contact sheets came back all BLUE. I realised I had finally found my own small way with color, and went on to make BLUEBOOK, which then moved into DREAMVILLA.

P.S.- I mean get out of your comfort zone physically, but also in your head, and that brings me back to Literature, to reading, to Cinema…

Submitted by dayanita on Fri, 07/31/2015 – 11:55

PHOTOGRAPHY AS EASY AS LBC

August 25, 2015September 3, 2015 Dayanita SinghLeave a comment

LIGHT- Photography after all is drawing with light. So you must learn to read light, see where it falls, what shadows it creates, how it changes, what it says……..So first of all, before lifting your camera even watch the light falling on that which you are drawn to photograph. Move yourself around the ‘subject’ to see if you might get better light. Moving not just left to right but up and down as well. Almost a dance around the ‘object’.Perhaps there is the possibility for a Photography course to have a movement component to it.

BACKGROUND- then look at what is in the background, does it enhance your image or take away. Again move around to see if you can find the most appropriate backdrop, the least distracting. Same dance as for the light. Boys you need to get on your knees occasionally.

CORNERS- then look to the edges of the frame and see what is in the corners. Do you want it, does it add something, can you move in or away to make the edges more defined? Personally, I think the image is about what is left out of the frame. The parts that do remain in the frame, do they become something more than what they are? Or is it just a record. In my book thats not enough. I want something more. I dont want to be a photo copy Photographer.

Thats it. LBC. But this is just making photographs, this does not make you the Author of the work… it’s just being an image maker, or lets say a scanner of whats infront of you.

Submitted by dayanita on Sat, 07/25/2015 – 10:53

A PHOTOGRAPH IS NOT WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS.

August 25, 2015 Dayanita Singhrestraint, rigourLeave a comment

A Photograph is NOT worth a thousand words. A photograph is best where there are no words, when it reveals the unsayable, says that which has no vocabulary.

******

Post Script:

* But to get to this ‘unsayable photograph’ requires Rigour, Restraint and the inescapable Reading. Its back to being the author of the work!

Submitted by dayanita on Sat, 07/25/2015 – 00:09

DEAR ASPIRING PHOTOGRAPHERS- forewards – VII

August 25, 2015August 28, 2015 Dayanita Singhessays, Forewards, textLeave a comment

And please don’t ask me or any one else to write a Foreword to your book, Dear Photographer.

You have worked many years to get to this stage, do all you can to keep your own voice throughout the book. The notion of forewords was necessary a few decades ago, when Photo Books were a novelty or served as catalogues. Now the book is a form on its own and the photographer can be the Author!

For me the text in a photo book works only when it can be read independently as well, when it walks alongside your images and does not in anyway try to illustrate or even allude to them.

Submitted by dayanita on Fri, 07/24/2015 – 12:58

DEAR ASPIRING PHOTOGRAPHERS – internships – VI

August 25, 2015August 28, 2015 Dayanita SinghLeave a comment

Dear Aspiring Photographers,

I am sorry but I am unable to take on interns and apologise for not responding individually to your requests.

At the best of times I like to be on my own but when I photograph it is almost essential both to focus and be open at the same time. It is the same when I am editing or sequencing or deciding the form.

Besides, I have no tips or formulas to offer you. My suggestions are all in my very subjective advices below – The experience of trying to find your own voice is long and made best on your own. Literature can possibly be your mentor. But you must find what works for you. It might be cinema, it might be travel…..something else.

PHOTOGRAPHY IN ITSELF IS JUST NOT ENOUGH.

Submitted by dayanita on Thu, 07/23/2015 – 00:00

DEAR ASPIRING PHOTOGRAPHERS – the book – V

August 25, 2015August 28, 2015 Dayanita SinghLeave a comment

The PHOTO BOOK is still my favorite form for the dissemination of the image. But dear aspiring photographers, the photographs you make are just the raw material for this. The book is made on the editing table. It’s there that you sequence, weed out, bring in, find the silent pages, maybe add some words, or not. In my work, making images is just 10% of the work. The real work is in the editing, sequencing, finding the right form. That can take years. Gathering the photos is the easiest part. It is then you might become the AUTHOR of your work and not just the photographer.

Submitted by dayanita on Tue, 07/21/2015 – 11:34

DEAR ASPIRING PHOTOGRAPHERS – IV

August 25, 2015August 25, 2015 Dayanita SinghLeave a comment

Photography is at its best when it goes where there are no words, toward that which has no vocabulary. A photograph that cannot be summarised by words. With this intention, it is perhaps closest to Music.

Therefore, Dear Aspiring Photographer, (in my humble “opinion”) studying music could certainly enhance your photographic sensibility. It is where I understood Restraint and Rigour.

Submitted by dayanita on Sun 09/17/2015 – 16:25

DEAR ASPIRING PHOTOGRAPHERS – cinema – III

August 25, 2015August 28, 2015 Dayanita SinghDear Aspiring PhotographersLeave a comment

Dear Aspiring Photographers,

Along with my second advice to focus on literature, I would also suggest the study of Cinema.

To see and ‘study’ as many classics as you can, again as a way of enlarging your life experience but also a way to understand narrative, lighting, framing, editing and sequencing.

For the ones who want to do a formal education (especially all of you who ask me where to study photography), I would recommend a BA in Literature or Cinema studies. Then you have something more to bring to your Photography.

Ask me for advice and this is what you get, no easy ways in my book.

Submitted by dayanita on Fri, 07/17/2015 – 18:36