Just point and shoot
On the World photography day, photographers spoke about taking over the craft
Update: 2014-08-19 01:56 GMT
Back in 1839, when William Fox-Talbot captured the first photographic negative, he probably wouldn’t have imagined that terms like selfies, Instagram and Photoshop would ever be associated with the humble camera.
175 years on, it’s hard to imagine a world where photographs and technology don’t go hand-in-hand with one another. This World Photography Day, we ask the question: with technology taking over the field, is the actual craft dying out? Is the line between talented professionals and amateur hobbyists blurring? DC speaks to amateur and professional photographers on tech taking over the craft.
Everybody from the snobby high school teenager to the bored next-door housewives boasts of a fancy new DSLR; and being a shutterbug is the most ‘in’ hobby of our generation. Add to that, a plethora of online apps — from snappy Facetune to vintage Retromatic — and even the clumsiest of hands can end up with a 200 likes-worthy Facebook picture. But as much advantages as digitalisation has offered, has it become too much of a good thing?
Nithin Barath who specialises in food, fashion and product photography says, “It’s quite easy to differentiate which is the real deal — time and aesthetics are heavily involved — so there’s no reason to feel hard done because of several kids taking to the field in this new era. Plus, there are a variety of options for everyone to happily co-exist; for instance, exclusive contests for iPhone photographers!”
Renowned wedding photographer Rakesh Prakash is someone who falls into the ‘untrained’ bracket, starting as a HR professional taking up the camera for a hobby, but is one of the city’s most sought after. “I’m totally grateful to the new-age trend; once I gained some experience and got offers for the then-niche genre that was wedding snaps — it was an easy decision for me to make the switch. It’s an encouraging time to be in the profession,” he remarks.
Others like Humans of Madras co-founder Varshita Ramesh may have started going click-happy after being gifted a new DSLR, but it translated into something else eventually. “I agree, earlier it was just about fancy profile pictures for my friends and myself — but later on, I realised there was way more to the technical aspect of it. We were high school students with no experience, but we wanted to find a way that would add meaning to the photos we took — so we started clicking portrait snaps with captions of people across the city. Our pictures may not be high on skill — but they offer a window into the sentiments and emotions of our city. An amateur effort; but a worthy one, wouldn’t you say?” she asks.
Experts Speak
Landscape photographer and brand ambassador of Canon, Dharma Chandru, notes that the price of a good camera is way lesser than that of a high-end iPhone and this is one reason which has created the impetus for many youngsters to ‘click pictures with a vengeance’. He says, “There has been a tremendous increase in the number of amateur photographers in the last few years. Amateurs need to learn the primary ethics pertaining to the art such as refraining from clicking photos that portraying the nation in poor light, and so on.”
Celebrity photographer Karthik Srinivasan, who also runs an academy for newbies, adds that amateurs are driven purely by luck and technical aid. “Carry an SLR digital camera of Rs 25,000 and two lenses, you become a photographer. A little knowledge in Photoshop and other photo editing software, you are an expert,” he rues, adding, “This has been the norm for quite some time and this is affecting professional lens men like me indirectly. Photography is all about creating and not clicking.”
Commercial photographer Venket Ram has a different perspective on the same. “Changes in technology are inevitable; what matters is how we keep going despite its domination. Earlier, photography was considered a rich man’s hobby and now it’s everyone’s hobby. In the 90s, there were hardly four or five photographers in Chennai. Now there are almost a thousand. There’s no point in making a hue and cry over youngsters embracing technology and claiming themselves to be ‘professional photographers’. We should live with the change.”