The photographer’’s block

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Nivedan shares his experiences of the photographer's block, when he had to stop taking pictures and how he came out of it as a better photographer.

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Similar to the ‘writer’s block’, there is photographer’s block. Photographer’s block and inability to shoot are different.  I have had photographer’s block thrice. Photographer’s block is not a very bad phenomenon. When a photographer comes out of it, he/she will come out with pictures of better quality. But inability to shoot arises out of the state of nothingness or existential vacuum. It is very dangerous and sips the confidence. It is hard to come out of it. In this article I will share my experiences of the photographer’s block.

When I bought the camera, I was a novice and learnt the technicalities by learning. Within 3 months the number of photos taken was around 3500. I realised that in 1000 pictures, only 100 were good. At that point I stopped a bit because of the dilemma of whether I should continue with this pattern or not. Bracketing will let the camera shoot multiple images with different parameters. The best one can be selected. But doing this all the time will not help learning. So I paused for sometime to learn angles, composition and technicalities. I analysed the images and found out optimum parameters for different situations and started to practice them after a month. The number of photographs taken, decreased drastically. But the quality of output and also the number of good photos in any given set of photos increased. So the block helped for good.

When I came to NCAS it was new for me and initially, we were in house-hunt and also trying to know each other. At that time I could not see anything that can be shot. It took some time to get accustomed to the new environment and I could hardly notice anything photogenic, though there were a lot of subjects and objects around. Slowly, I started noticing these. I removed this block by deliberately carrying the camera in the hand, though I had a bag. I gave me the energy to click instantly.  When I went to Narmada Bachao Andolan at Barwani, I clicked some pictures that came out very well. Later I used them in my designs on many occasions. Afterwards, I was inseparable with the camera. It became an integral part of me; an organ; a third eye.

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When I carried the camera with me in the hand, I eventually saw a hawker selling mango juice. This object in the picture was chiseled ice floating on it.

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Photos that I took when I went to the Narmada Valley

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I had the last block, when I started to design book covers and posters for NCAS. I was concentrating on that and my camera again went into the bag, mainly because of sleepless nights. I would sit there after office hours to design. Atleast four nights in a week were spent on that. With drooping drowsy eyes I could not concentrate on photography. But I realised something at that time. Whenever I was asked to document field visits I took pictures of meetings and discussions. I realised that it was not my interest and I should concentrate on more productive things. I openly declared that I won’t take pictures of meetings and discussions anymore as i am more interested in issues and people related to that. I also realised that I required backgrounds for designing. So I started to click grass, leaves and other objects up-close. All my colleagues gave a foul cry that I am taking pictures of unnecessary things (at times, deliberately out of focus), and adamant that I am not taking pictures of the meetings and discussions. With sheer clarity of thought I replied that I depend on my brain and not the eyes to take pictures. In a few days I gave a surprise by designing a few good posters using the “useless photographs” as backgrounds.

A few of the "Useless" Pictures

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So in all three instances I have come out as a better photographer. But the state of nothingness has hit me to some extent. I will write on it when I come out of it. 

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About the Author: Nivedan is an intern at National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), Pune. With self-nurtured knowledge of photography, he experiments with photography and other forms like posters so as to use them as tools for sensitization, advocacy and social transformation.

Contact Nivedan at nivedanmangalesh@yahoo.com

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PITCHING ON THE TRACK

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Nivedan writes on how to take development photography to a particular target audience in a socially and politically useful way.

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There are many ways to take the photographs of social and political significance to the public. I am certainly not for hanging it in an art gallery. It is nothing but selling poverty and powerlessness for a high price. Even though if the pictures are intended to evoke consciousness in the public, the impact depends upon the time, place, the audience to which it is presented and also the way it is presented.

Art galleries interest the creamy layer as they find something to decorate the walls. They prefer colourful wallpapers or glittering framed wall hangings; they do not care for the implied messages. So when photography on poverty and powerlessness goes to an art gallery, it is nothing but mere art. Whenever we read “Robinson Crusoe”, we romanticize solitude and living with nature, as we usually do with Adivasis. But is there anyone to live like a cast-away? Why not if solitude is blissful and romantic? One puncture in the motorcycle, 10 Km away from a hill station, will make a vacation into an intensive military training; we certainly won’t be romanticizing that. So when it occurs to us, we are not ready to tolerate it. Similarly, the artful photo of poverty certainly does not convey the emotions, the desperate voices and the powerlessness of the subjects. Think of the same from the subject’s point of view. Someone taking my state of despair to decorate a wall is tampering with my dignity and making money out of it. It is totally unethical and uncouth; enough is said. As I have told, the photography magazines are doing the same thing.

So how should I use it in an ethical way? If one wants to reach people through the press, he/she should choose the right newspaper/magazine first. It is better to write photo essays on the own, otherwise, the media may manipulate with stories that are not at all related. Secondly, one has to check for the photo essays. Giving credit to the photographer is also an ethical practice. One need not send the essays or photographs for the media that does not give credits to photographers. Tehelka carries good photo essays. Then one has to trace the ideology of the particular newspaper/magazine. Pro-real estate newspapers that carry out separate sheets for ads for new apartments will not publish something on the problems faced by the construction workers in the construction sites. For example, “The Hindu” covered the issue of farmer’s suicide very well. Photos on this issue may be used very well by them.

If one wants to take the other route, they can contribute their photos to non-profits who are genuinely working to address the issues the photographers who have covered it. It may be useful for the purpose of lobbying or research on the issue. It can also be used to mobilize the people. For example, I have used the photographs to design posters, book covers and documentary film CD covers for NCAS, so that it reaches the right people, who understand or need to understand the issues, like film makers, policy makers, researchers, activists or the people of the affected community. As with writing photo essays, here also, it is better to design the posters as the photographer himself can substantiate with words or slogans in them. So words and visuals will have cohesiveness in a better way. Third parties may distort the picture with their design language with lesser understanding of issues and the target audience.

Some of my designs for NCAS

Another way of doing it is making photo-documentaries that tell stories or issues with a sequence of pictures. They are substantiated with captions and brief comments. They can be made available in the internet. There are numerous commercial photo stocks. There is no difference between the art galleries and these stocks, except the fact that photo stocks supply photos to the corporate world. It is even worse. There is one stock called ‘Photoshare’ that supplies photos for non-profit use only. They don’t charge the non-profits for the photos and they insist on the ethics of photography. One has to request for a particular photo by a particular photographer. They would ask for the purpose and on agreeing to certain terms and conditions they send high resolution photos and the user has to ensure that proper credits are given to the photographer. The copyrights are reserved only with the photographer and he/she can use it anywhere.

Click here to visit www.photoshare.org

So there are innumerable ways to make photographs useful socially and politically. One has to find out the right way to reach to the particular target group. There are ways, all that is required is will.

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About the Author: Nivedan is an intern at National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), Pune. With self-nurtured knowledge of photography, he experiments with photography and other forms like posters so as to use them as tools for sensitization, advocacy and social transformation.

Contact Nivedan at nivedanmangalesh@yahoo.com

SLAVES OF THE CUBICLES

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Nivedan writes on the role of photography magazines in supplying photographers for the mainstream genres, especially fashion photography. He also writes about Mr. John Isaac, who was able to break this paradox of mainstream, yet winning the recognition he deserves.

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Any creation should have a purpose behind it, according to me. I am not for ‘art for art’s sake’. Taking photographs to showcase that I’m a photographer will get me recognition. But, to break the cubicle named ‘mainstream’ we are captivated in, social usefulness by reaching to the people and influencing them through the photograph is really important. This cubicle has kept everyone, including the doctors, advocates, teachers, photographers, journalists, engineers and all others, for serving the creamy layer of the society named urban middle and upper classes, while a sizeable majority of the rural and urban poor suffer with the denial of access to these cubicles.

There are vast resources for the photographers in these cubicles. If one reads the photography magazines these days, he/she can easily understand that they are in full swing to reinforce these cubicles. If one reads without seeing the cover, the content may confuse the reader if it is a magazine on lifestyle or fashion. Yes, these magazines publish interviews of mainly the fashion photographers, at times about the photographers of other commercial genres. These interviews take around 20% of the space; 20% of the space is for the advertisements; 15% of the space is for the reviews of new products (as I have stressed earlier, gadgets are not more important than the human for photography); 5% of space is for studio lighting and post processing techniques; 10% of space is for announcement of new products and competitions; 15% of space is for useless questions and useless answers. Most of those who ask questions, introduce himself/herself as an aspirant to become a fashion photographer! Their questions will only be on the gadgets (Without knowing their one requirement, I don’t know what photography they would do). 15% is for the pictures from the readers and a few critiques on the technicalities of the photograph (Damn! who needs perspectives or ethics?). It is the same with any magazine.

Very rarely, they glorify the late photographers of the past, who had contributed extra-ordinarily for the society with photographs. Last month, ironically, I found an interview of Mr. John Isaac. He is an ex-UN photographer. He had been to different countries and documented the cultures, colours and sorrows of the different communities. His perspectives were really impressive. He had said that he places humans before photography. He said if a human being is suffering, he would help the human first rather than taking photographs. I liked this particular statement. In these days, there are umpteen photographers capturing the poverty artfully to sell them for a high price in the galleries; some photojournalists, in this process of capturing “Sensational”, damage the dignity of the subjects in a few seconds. In this era, Mr. Isaac has denied a Pulitzer prize to protect the dignity of his subjects! The magazine publishing his interview is a greater surprise.

I am happy that it has happened at least once. It would be great if interviews of such humane photographers get published every month. It gives energy to us that there are photographers who have broken these cubicles, yet getting the recognition they deserve. Highlighting these photographers and their works continuously can trigger a chain reaction to break all these cubicles. For example, if a group of photographers get inspired and concentrate on rural health issues and the holes in the horrible health care system in India and take it to the government-run medical college students and policy makers, the doctors of the futures can be inspired to break the cubicles and the policy makers would be forced to plug the holes in the system respectively. Similarly, if every cubicle is broken, on the long run, sustainable and equitable development is possible. If the mainstream media takes up this role, transparent and accountable governance can be achieved in the far future.

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About the Author: Nivedan is an intern at National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), Pune. With self-nurtured knowledge of photography, he experiments with photography and other forms like posters so as to use them as tools for sensitization, advocacy and social transformation.
Contact Nivedan at nivedanmangalesh@yahoo.com

ON CASTING LIGHT OVER THE DARK

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Nivedan shares some perspectives on investigative journalism and writes on the importance of maintaining contacts with the activists who work with the people who are exploited, with reference to his rare visit to a quarry.

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Very rarely does one get chances for capturing an exploitative situation. The exploiters never permit outsiders, especially photographers, documentary film makers or the media. There are investigative journalists who do muckraking in such situations. I met one Ms, Madhumita Dutta in Orissa. She was from The Other Media, Madras branch. We were there in the inauguration of an agitation.

The POSCO SEZ was coming up in the Jagatsinghpur district. So the activists and the people to be displaced were raising slogans in front of the collector’s office. Finally they stormed into it. However, the collector had left earlier. The protest ended up in giving the demands to the Assistant Collector. However the agitation continued in the villages. The villagers had put up check posts of their own to prohibit the outsiders, especially POSCO and government officials from entering the village. The situation was tense, as they had already kept a few Korean nationals working for POSCO as hostages. The government from its side had engaged the armed police force in the area to keep watch over the area. Going into the villages would be dangerous, as neither the guards nor the villagers would recognize the intruders. So we decided not to go that night to the villages.

But Madhu spoke to an activist who goes to the village regularly and got on to the vehicle and without any hesitation she entered the village that night. Then she collected stories and took photos also. She came back in the morning to inform us that the tension had reduced as the hostages were released. We went there to find out that it was a very tricky situation. There were more than five hundred pairs of suspicious eyes watching us and we were let in only when they were able to confirm that we were not foes. I wonder at the investigative journalists and their courage. More than that, their ability to get news and photos at such situations is amazing.

I got a lifetime opportunity of taking pictures in a quarry. We went to an organization by name Santulan. They were working with quarry workers. They conduct a school for the quarry children. After interacting with the children, we went to the quarry to see the environment in which they were working. The vision was obstructed by the dust there. We went closer to find a giant crater that was made by quarrying. There were hundreds of people working in inhuman working conditions. Some of them were breaking stones ten hours a day! Some had to cut the stones from above so that it can be collected 150 feet below. They were in the edges without any safety helmets or gloves or safety ropes. There was moving gravel under their feet. One slip would bring a sad end to their life.

They were bonded labourers who have been working for generations. They had been given accommodation in houses built with stones. One may be carried away by the thought that stone houses means something like the buildings of Ferguson College or that of Madurai Medical College. But imagine igloos that are made of stone. The houses are like that. The roof was made of tin. It was literally a den without ventilation. Air does not come in, but rain water certainly does. One has to crawl in and ovoid getting up, because it will crash open the roof. I went in to take a few pictures. There are no words to describe it. One can just look at the pictures and find out. It is fortunate that I am able to bring out this injustice to the attention of a broader audience.

Quarry

But I got it clear both from Madhu and my own experience that one has to establish contact with the activists who are fighting with the people who face injustice. It is the best way to capture injustice without facing some serious risk as the activists have access to them. One has to go casually as a visitor who came for a field visit through that organization and get the pictures in due course of the visit. Presenting oneself as a person who came to collect stories and photographs will rise suspicion ultimately making it fruitless. People's trust on us is more important than anything else while going for the shoot.

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About the Author: Nivedan is an intern at National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), Pune. With self-nurtured knowledge of photography, he experiments with photography and other forms like posters so as to use them as tools for sensitization, advocacy and social transformation.

Contact Nivedan at nivedanmangalesh@yahoo.com

On Gloss and Clichés

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Nivedan writes on the Clichés and the gloss that one comes across in photography these days and points out how one should avoid them in development photography.

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Familiarity breeds contempt. It is true and applicable to photography. Conventional angles, conventional subjects/objects, conventional time and conventional parameters make clichéd shots. That is what most of us do. People in sunrise and sunsets in the beaches and Toothy smiles in front of Taj Mahal or other heritage sites are a few examples of clichéd shots. One can find innumerable photos looking similar in the image-sharing sites. Maybe they feel themselves to be documenting their own life: a literal understanding of ‘making history’.

Even in the family albums one can observe the bright colours and clichéd shots. It implies that we like to preserve only the gloss of the history in a very stereotypical way. We never like to preserve the bad memories. Leaving the family histories aside, the history album of a city, a community, a marginalized section of the society is never full of colours of joy and celebration. It is always drenched red with wars, disputes, disasters and sorrows. So, willing suspension of artful gloss and clichés is required while taking the pictures of the people who have never seen the gloss of life.

This is why classic black and white pictures (Again, for example, that of Raghu Rai) touch the hearts and convey more than the glossy artful portrayal. The very form itself conveys both happiness and sorrow just through white and black respectively. Can anyone imagine the black comedies of Charlie Chaplin in colour? Don’t even think of it.

Natural light only can work wonders for this type of photography. Uniform lighting spoils the sense of the picture, the mood and the emotion prevailing in that situation. Even if the pictures are taken in colour, the tungsten lighting would be the best choice to convey everything. I would never use any form of artificial lighting in a photograph, including the built-in flash of the camera. Even if a few portions of the environment is covered with shadow, it conveys a meaning, say something forbidden, something that would affect the dignity of the person photographed (Say, while capturing manual scavenging). The latter was used in the Elizabethan Theatre. ‘Horror or something shocking (say a murder or war) should not be shown on the stage’, was an ethic in it. The Indian Express, during the time of emergency, left the censored spaces blank to let the readers interpret that there was a column that was written against the government forbidden for the print. Similarly, shadows in the absence of artificial lighting convey strong messages.

So when it comes to development photography, one has to avoid the gloss and clichés and put the expression of sense and emotion in the photos first. It is better to capture in black and white. But it comes only with practice and experimentation. For example, I need to increase the exposure compensation by two stops to balance the highlights and shadows in my cameras. Otherwise it is too dark. If one chooses colour, he/she should try to avoid too much of fanciful and artful portrayal, going for natural lighting.

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About the Author: Nivedan is an intern at National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), Pune. With self-nurtured knowledge of photography, he experiments with photography and other forms like posters so as to use them as tools for sensitization, advocacy and social transformation.
Contact Nivedan at nivedanmangalesh@yahoo.com

WHEN, WHY AND WHAT NEXT?

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Nivedan shares his view on when and why, a photographer can upgrade his/her gadgets.

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“Last year I bought a camera. I ditched it this year for the sake of a new model”. This is a typical statement that one can expect from a young urban photography enthusiast. But there may be a lot of reasons behind it. A probable few are “I have money, the trend says it’s old. So I am buying a new, trendy, sleek, flashy, fully loaded, state of the art, top of the range-megapixel camera”; “I am fed up with that one as it is too familiar”. But these ideas are simply utilitarian and reflect the devaluation of photography as a whole. What is the necessity to change the camera, when the previous camera is just fine? Is it totally useless?

Any camera in this world is useful, even if it is jammed! Yes, as I always stress, photography is in the brain and not in the camera. My friend had a jammed Minolta XD5 of the 70’s. He had kept it as it had problems with the focal plane shutter, film winding lever and of course the most common problem, the fungus inside on the lens elements. He had brought with the hope that he may be able to use it. But he didn’t even know how to open the film compartment. He threw it on the attic and looked out for a new digital camera.

I had constantly been saying to him to repair it. It is a classic and will certainly be one of the best tools to learn photography. He was not ready to do that as he wanted to be with the trend. But the camera was really useful to me in practicing composition, manual focusing and of course, handling an SLR. SLRs’ focusing screens are totally different from that of the digital camera that shows bright images on the big LCDs. SLRs and DSLRs don’t have the liveview (though the newly introduced ones do have. But they come with price). One has to look through the viewfinder, which is not as bright or large as the LCDs. Secondly, it is difficult to focus manually. So practice helped to prepare myself for the next upgrade.

I had to practice composition, exposure and other technical aspects of photography with my compact camera rigorously to gain perfection. In the first 5 months I took 3000 pictures (I bought the camera in February 2007). But now I have taken around 8500 photos overall. The numbers reduced gradually. It does not mean that I have lost interest in photography. It is an indicator of acquiring perfection. During the first 5 months I used to take pictures whenever I felt like, with different parameters like white balance, ISO, exposure and composition. There was a constant experimentation. But later I learnt to compose the frame in mind, guess the right parameters and more importantly to choose the right moment to capture. These days I do not take more than two pictures of the same thing. I find it the right time to upgrade my camera.

So what are the reasons to upgrade my camera? Is it that I being an ‘expert’ can change cameras as I wish? The answer is no one in this world is an expert as there are more than a thousand ways to capture a moment. So there is not one way called ‘expert’s way’, everyone is experimenting and no one can claim that he/she is ‘the best’ or ‘expert’; everyone is a student in photography in reality, if not in claims or the labels. I am also a learner, and I don’t upgrade for the sake of the trend or being fed up with my camera. When I reach the saturation point in using my camera, i.e. when I reach the point when I become capable of creating something more than what my camera can capture, I will upgrade my camera.

For example, the dynamic range of my camera is lesser than that of a SLR and details are washed off when I click against a bright light source. Reducing the aperture does not help as the minimum aperture is f/7.6 in which the image is unusable due to the chromatic aberration. I am not able to capture fast moving objects because of the focusing speed of my camera and also the focusing ability. So there is a clear gap between what I want to do and what the camera is capable of. So at this point of time I will go for a DSLR.

But I would do a detailed research of the gadgets available. Only as per my needs I will choose my next camera. More importantly, I won’t ditch my compact camera, as it also serves my purpose even now. For example, if I am doing candid photography in place where child labour is practiced, the owner of the place is certainly not gonna like it. Usually in such situations either the camera is seized or destroyed. It happened in a construction site, where the HR manager tried to erase whatever footages we had shot for the documentary on the construction workers in Pune. It happens in protests and agitations also. So in such situations, using a compact camera won’t draw much of attention. Even if it is seized or broken it does not take a heavy toll on my wallet. So, compact cameras also play an equally important role in development photography.

So when it comes to upgrading the gadget one has to think of what he/she has achieved with the current equipment, what he/she can still do with the current equipment, what the limitations of the current equipment are, what the budget for the next camera is, whether the next gadget would satisfy his/her needs, etc. Finally, before getting a new camera, I would advice to do some research on what one can get.

Useful Link:
Check out http://www.dpreview.com/ for detailed reviews and latest releases. It is a bit too technical and the reviewers go into too much of details that may not be necessary for beginners. But it is quite informative.

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About the Author: Nivedan is an intern at National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), Pune. With self-nurtured knowledge of photography, he experiments with photography and other forms like posters so as to use them as tools for sensitization, advocacy and social transformation.

Contact Nivedan at nivedanmangalesh@yahoo.com

PICTURES OF BHOPAL GAS DISASTER: REFLECTIONS WITHIN

Rifat portrays how one photographer single handedly documented one of the world’s deadliest corporate crime risking his own life and how his work has been the key driving force for the struggle for justice till date, even after twenty years the disaster struck.
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1984 - A horrendous industrial disaster struck the land of Central India in Bhopal. I was not old enough to understand the real consequence of it, yet a picture of the burial of an unknown child kept memories of the incident alive in my mind. Twenty years later, I was one among the many to demand justice for Bhopal survivors in Pune city. We could not think of any strategy other than organizing an exhibition of pictures about the industrial disaster to generate empathy in a class considered to be an influential citizenry of the city. We were supporting the Bhopal gas survivors against one of the largest democracies in the world – the Indian Government - to do justice to the survivors. Raghu Rai, the name behind these pictures is known to have risked his own life and document the worst industrial disaster by using his camera. No doubt, the picture of the burial of an unknown child has become the icon of the tragedy caused by the US multinational chemical company, Union Carbide.

Undoubtedly, for the past 23 years, it is the courage of Bhopal gas survivors who have been campaigning against the Indian Government’s decision to let go the culprit (then Union Carbide and now DOW Chemicals) scot free without owning the responsibility of the disaster in 1984. On the fateful midnight of December 2, around 41 tonnes of deadly methyl isocyanate gas and its reaction products leaked from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal. It resulted in the immediate death of over 15,000 people and untold suffering of thousands. Since then, more than 20,000 have died from the complications caused by inhaling the gas that night. Over 1,20,000 continue to still suffer. The hazardous chemicals buried at the company site when the plants were operating, and those left behind after the disaster in 1984, have polluted the soil and underground water severely affecting the health of a very large number of people. The survivors are treated offhandedly while the government bends over backwards to accommodate the company interests. Moreover, the compensation to the victims is averaged only to US $500 (Rs 21,400) per person-barely enough for a lifetime of sickness.

For all these years the pictures clicked by Raghu Rai strongly stand against the government’s claim post disaster that it has done justice to the victims. These are documents about the sufferings of the poor and the heinous corporate crime which was condemned the world over.

The pictures have become an inseparable part of any talk on the subject and campaign world over. The pictures - of a man carrying the body of his wife past the deserted Union Carbide factory, the source of the toxic gas that killed her the night before is no less horrifying than the picture of Mh. Aziz as he looks at the skeletons that have come out of the graves. Each picture in this series is in black and white (there are several online links where one can access these).

Pictures of Bhopal gas disaster have been exhibited all over world till date and still are subject of interest for many working against corporate crime and gross human rights violations. These have become tool to support campaign on cause. This is one example of using photography for a human cause where justice is more important than portraying beauty.

-Rifat Mumtaz
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About the Author: Rifat works with campaign support unit in National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), Pune. She Works on key issues of livelihood rights with specific focus on Land Rights.
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Click here to see Raghu Rai's photos on the disaster.

Crouching tiger to unveil hidden dragon

Nivedan throws light on covert photography, the applicability for development photography and ways of doing it. He also speaks on deciding when it is ethical and when it is not.
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A covert photography is one which a photographer does without the knowledge of the subject(s). While there are more than countable number of idiots who do that with their mobile phones in public places here, one can sue the photographer for intrusion into his/her space and privacy in many western countries. So whenever a photo is taken, written permission has to be got from each individual in a frame. Whenever the photograph is publicly displayed or sold to a stock, the permission letter has to be produced. It is known as ‘model release’. It helps to protect the privacy of the common man. In India, it is not the case. Instead, if I am shooting a mall, a construction site or an industry from outside, there will be dozens of thugs come running towards me to snatch the camera. The reason is, they will have thousand law-infringements inside the premises ranging from child labour to exploitation and wage malpractices that they don’t want to be exposed through our counter-hegemony. But in this country where a HIV patient is exposed and insulted to death, no one cares for privacy.

But as development photographers, we have to expose the tragedies and agonies that the subjects may feel sensitive to. For example, in some rural areas in Tamilnadu, people believe that being photographed reduces their lifetime! If I need to cover a story on, say farmers’ miseries, how can I do that with the knowledge of the concerned people? So, a development photographer is forced to a situation, where covert photography is inevitable. One has to initially decide on whether it is ethical or not, according to the situation. In this article, I would also like to discuss on why, where and how, one should practice covert photography.

Click to see candid pictures

Covert photography is anyhow an intrusion into someone’s privacy. So, one should reserve it as the last option. It should be used only when there is no other way to cover an issue. Personally, I have faced the dilemma of choosing between doing covert photography or to miss the moment. Many a time I have chosen the latter. So how did I decide when to take and when to miss? I would calculate the impact that photo will make, which implies the message-worthiness of the moment and the usability of the photograph for a broader cause. More importantly, I will also think of the risks involved in it.

There are some risk-free moments that require covert photography such as while shooting the children. Children are always vibrant and they will make lots of movements in the frame. It can happen otherwise also, i.e. when they are being photographed, they are so excited and want to look good in photographs, freeing their actions, they even stop smiling. But it will make the picture too artificial, as if it is taken in a studio. There is a necessity to take photos without their knowledge. So, covert photography is one solution and the photographer would not miss the emotions, playfulness and concentration in whatever they are doing.

Most of the times, I would do it candidly, and not covertly. They may know I am going to take their photo, but they would not know when. This is because, I would compose the image and look out of the camera, straight into their faces and engage them with some expressions. So they assume that I would not be taking a photograph at that moment, but I would. It was a way that one of my photographer friends suggested to me. But after taking I will make the children happy by showing them, albeit without giving the precious equipment in their hands.

When it is a sensitive environment, I would not take out the camera publicly and show in front of all. It will unnecessarily draw attention. For instance, brick-making was going on in a construction site. There was child labour in abundance. The toddlers of the brick makers also were intentionally let to play near the parents while working, so that the parents won’t be going to their temporary shelters nearby to look after the needs of their children and the workflow would be reduced. The environment was too inhuman, full of dust and noise. There were stacks of finished bricks very close to the place. If a brick falls on the head of a toddler, that would be the end of the him/her.

I wanted to capture this cruelty for later use. But the supervisor was constantly roaming and bullying the brick makers. At the sight of a camera, I would be attacked certainly and my equipment would be seized. The workers also had to be kept busy, otherwise it will raise suspicion. So I carefully prepared my camera inside the opaque bag, as if I am searching for something. Once the supervisor’s turned his vision to the opposite direction, I took out the camera. I had asked my colleague to stand near the brick makers and converse with them, so that they may not know if there is a camera. Within three seconds the shot was finished. Suddenly I placed it inside the bag, only to find that just after hiding the camera the supervisor’s looks turned towards us.

But in certain circumstances, one has to shoot from an angle, where the face of the subject should not be visible at all. For instance, confidentiality is an ethic when it comes to victims of sexual abuse, HIV patients, etc. Only if it is highly essential, their photographs can be taken, that too in a way that they are not at all identifiable. One has to strictly follow it when it comes to candid or covert photography. It is highly insisted to show the photo to them and get approval for taking it to the audience.

Finally, before going for covert photography one has to think of how much impact it would make in the minds of the target audience. If the impact would be minimal, covert photography is best, avoided. For example, when I was asked to cover the hawkers being evicted from the streets ruthlessly, with the seizure of their goods, which implies the loss of their livelihood in a second, I decided not to shoot that. This is mainly because the target audiences want them to be evicted and photography is not the medium to express the complete miseries of the Hawkers to that particular class. There was a documentary film getting ready for that purpose. So an extensive medium will create a greater impact than the photographs, which would be of no use to sensitize the particular group of people.

So, when it comes to covert or candid photography, one has to make sure that it is ethical, unlike a few mobile phone photographers. One has to decide on when, where and how to take a covert snap. One has to protect the identity of the subject whenever it is required. Finally, one has to think of the impact a photograph before going it.

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About the Author: Nivedan is an intern at National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), Pune. With self-nurtured knowledge of photography, he experiments with photography and other forms like posters so as to use them as tools for sensitization, advocacy and social transformation.

Contact Nivedan at nivedanmangalesh@yahoo.com

EXPOSING THE DARK

Nivedan explores how the market affects social usefulness of photography and how photography can effectively be used to bring about a social change. He also lists outs the ethics and practice standards of this genre of photography.

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History has shown many a time that photography is not only an art, but also a medium to convey strong messages. The wartime photographers have documented the cruelties of war better than any author or film maker, perilously exposing themselves to hostile environment. Raghu Rai’s book “Exposure”, which was a photo documentation of shocking realities of the Bhopal gas tragedy, shook everyone with moving pictures, thus bringing the horror to the limelight. The issue received such an attention from the audience. Such photographs have always induced sympathy, empathy and sensitiveness of the viewer. In broader sense, they have always reminded us of where humans and humanity are going towards. To be precise, they have carried a great magnitude of socio-political usefulness.

Photography, as a visual medium, has a lot of advantages over paintings and video clips in conveying such a message. Any form of painting can be ruled out as imagination by the audience; i.e. it is the artist’s perception and impression of how he/she saw things, it does not give the first hand vision of the scenario as a photograph or a video. On the other hand, Video does not freeze an emotion, an expression and an implied meaning in one frame, ultimately being an extensive medium rather than an intensive medium that keeps the viewer interpreting to the point of infinity and think on the meanings conveyed. But photography is realistic and gives the first hand vision to the viewer, at the same time it freezes every element essential to convey a message intensively. Hence one wise man told, “One good photograph is equivalent to 1,000 words”; Truth!

But in this neo-liberal era, market is the mother of every creation. Art is also no exception. Camera is perceived more as a tool for taking photographs that the market demands. So the craze for digital cameras and the market for commercial photography have grown simultaneously. New genres of photography emerged as per market requirements. While the digital camera production and selling is soaring high along with the demand for aesthetically good and creative photographs, the social usefulness of photography is in an all-time low. Photography has become affordable and easy, but the social usefulness of photography have gone out of trace. A photojournalist takes photos that carry news value, basically following the principles of “Common man in uncommon situation or uncommon man in common situation or something sensational”. For him/her, “common man in common situation” has no news value and he/she can neglect that. If a journalist does not do that, one cannot expect that from a photographer of any other stream. Even if such a picture is taken, ultimately it is for the sake of the artistic value and not much for human interest. Even the non-profits use photography for the dullest purpose of mere documentation of their work! In all these cases, where lies the social or political usefulness of photography? Directly or indirectly, it serves the market, but not for the society. Such photographs, regardless of how aesthetic they are, cannot be compared to that of Raghu Rai or the wartime photographers.

There are a great majority of people and communities that suffer social exclusion and miles away from the mainstream life that we see every day. For example, while we get the news about a fashion show, we rarely get to know about the farmers’ suicides and miseries due to indebtedness. So, as a photographer, one has to think of how to bring such unnoticed serious issues to notice, deviating himself/herself from the market demands, for the value of social usefulness. I am not insisting on going into a hostile environment crossing police barricades. Keeping all the prejudices away, a photographer can go into a slum and carefully capture the sights and sounds, living conditions, emotions and demands of slum dwellers. A photo exhibition on that would bring their poor living standards to the public; an article on the one day experiment in a mainstream weekly magazine would draw attention of the policy-makers; a photo documentary can be a source for the non-profits working on slum issues to lobby with the government to positively affect their lives and livelihoods. One need not leave the mainstream genres of photography to do it. It can be done as a hobby at least, which does justify the values of photography. There are unheard miseries all around oneself, from evicted hawkers and slum-dwellers; construction workers, small farmers, street children, child labour, victims of disasters, etc. Their feeble voices can be amplified through photography.

But before giving it a try, one has to look from the perspective of the marginalized. Capturing portrait of a slum dweller is not as easy as casually taking a portrait of an IT engineer, as people are too sensitive and emotional to show their faces in photos. Certain ethics have to be followed. One has to explain the genuine cause of doing so and clearly explain what he/she is up to. One has to earn the trust of the community and observe and respect the culture and traditional practices prevailing in the community and households. Clarity on the issue is the essence of this genre of photography. For example, the prejudice of hawkers being a hindrance to traffic won’t bring clarity; one has to have the questions of why they have come to this profession? Where have they come from? How much do they earn? Are they in debts; are they able to meet the ends? What are the losses in the case of eviction? What is their contribution to the society? What will they be able to do if they are not allowed to do this profession? If they are encroachers, what is a parking area then? Etc. Going through the policies affecting them would deepen the knowledge. One has to ask for the verbal consent of the people to be photographed. Rarely, if the situation requires, candid photos can be taken, but showing the photo (in case of a digital camera) to the person or people would earn the photographer trust from the people. There may be some cases, where confidentiality is mandatory, examples, rape victims and HIV patients. The photographer should get the consent from the person and should not reveal the identity of the person.

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Ultimately, the idea of change is subjective. One has to take a concrete stand. But if I can express my idea of change through photographs, young people like me can also do that, albeit with their own understanding of change. But the point is one has to strive social usefulness. One has to decide upon whether photography is just for advertising or also for sensitising.

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About the Author: Nivedan is an intern at National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), Pune. With self-nurtured knowledge of photography, he experiments with photography and other forms like posters so as to use them as toosl for sensitization, advocacy and social transformation.

Contact Nivedan at nivedanmangalesh@yahoo.com