The "Roopmatis" of the Industry & Me

Yes its exactly what you think it is. They are the face of the fashion and glamour industry around the world, the "ROOPMATIS" (the archaic, sarcastic Hindi word, meaning a dumb beauty). They are everywhere and you can find then in every corner and every circuit of this industry, however, it is a very difficult task to find one good model who has got the "THING" in her. Most of them are after money and cheap publicity. On the floor, in front of the lens they are as dumb as a stone, most of them lack facial expressions, actions and unaware of what is going on. I have found many a good faces, but either they are not interested in conceptual and creative photography, or they dont have a wee bit idea of what that is. Another difficulty for me is money now. Not every time it is possible for me to hire expensive models to get my experiments done, unless I get a paid assignment. Paid assignments are 99% commercial and they DO NOT entertain conceptual or creative photography with low or medium key lighting. The reason being, those photos will not be considered as a "good" photo in the modeling agencies or by public. I once showed one low photo to one of my so called artist friend and he replied, "dude you should some good flash, the light is very low here", or "why dont you use photoshop to do some editing?" I couldn't help but laugh my heart out that day. Needless to say that he got offended and stopped talking to me.

TFCD seems to be a very good choice in this case, atleast for me. I have approached many a models and Most of them were interested about it after they got the details from me. Recently I am trying to materialise the themes and styles of Legendary Painter and Sculptor Mr. Gustav Klimt. Especially the late 1800 concepts of "Femme Fatal". It is very tough to regularise those things into a shape and then convert those concepts for photography. All of his work is abstract and he used mosaic style and other aids to hide the crude reality and give it a polish of art which is first drawn on the canvas. I would love to get suggestions on this particular topic. Need very intellectual and physically well articulated female models for this project. Looking forward to work with one of my British friends from Oxford. It is only possible if he comes here again within next few months.

Conceptual and creative photographs are not some pile of heavy stuff which most of the time is beyond our understanding, rather they are, according to me, the most easy ones to understand. They should carry one strong message, a story for drawing the viewer's attention, and an attractive portrayal/representation. I always found others talking about this in the other way round.Though it is a intellectual side of photography and also less explored, but still it tends to draw my attention and I always feel a need to work on this front to give my viewers some message on the issues less touched or avoided by us.

New stuffs on the roll

This time I have got a new zoom lens. Sigma 70-300mm DG. Awesome clarity and performance at this price range (price equivalent to $160 USD). I would say one of the best bargains I have had.

Later made a trip to Bankura for some travel and journalistic features. Results are increament in stock, new experience to count on and some more interests revealed. Also tried the other side of the Bankura and very ordinary places also looked beautiful through the lens. This is what the photography is all about. May be next time I will be able enough to reveal its beauty from the ordinary.

I also tried the lens with studio flash and setup, and guess what, it gave me excellent results. The only problems is the sound of the AF function motor. it sometimes allerts the insects/animals and I lose them. however I think this is a very good lens for the starters like me. The macro feature really helps you to get closer to the subject which I think is most important in macro photography. The minimum distance is 0.96m. which is about 3.1ft. A safe distance and also close enough to get a full length compositions.

There are other news about the press release and publications I had last and this month. Last month the photograph of Ranjit Kumar Maiti was published in the case study on Indian segment of AMD's operations. SPH publishing published my photo of Victoria Memorial on the Japanese edition of Silverkris. This is a magazine from Singapore airlines. Last month the local tabloid Somachar Saatdin published a review about my photo Hollowman from the 2nd Light & Shadow annual exhibition held at Kolkata information Centre during 17th to 21st June. However, I still havent got the hardcopy of Silverkris. What can I say, I am sincerely waiting for the mag to come.

Lessons of the trade

The 2nd annual L&S exhibition was a success and it concluded with a jubilant celebration where our one of the senior members' (Sujoy da) birthday celebration added some cheerful colours. There are few good news to relish and give a push to start me off again. We are trying to start off a new project under the lnsexhibits banner. It will be run by the students initially and to give some extra mileage to the serious photographers from L&S. that is why it is called Project-Mileage. It will be a stock photography project. Its my brain child and it is definitely gonna hit the bull's eye. As soon as money comes into play, lots of people take interest. Hope to get some good response.

I was approached by few viewers at the exhibition for sale of my photos. I was overwhelmed with the response. I was interviewed by the Shomoykaal magazine for my photo Hollowman. The young generation kids and youngsters seemed not interested in the creative portraitures. They were least interested in going deep and think about the issues which had been touched sensitively in those depictions. Older and senior most visitors were happy to see those intense thoughts. A lot has to be done to improve the culture of photography. People seem to be taking more interests in attractive and explicit portrayal of beauty. Photo editing and enhancement softwares have taken over the camera tricks and other techniques e.g. forced application of slow shutter speed, long exposure, zoom burst, panning, simulated panning, DOF illusions, etc. People seem to get lazy when taking a photograph and do the trick while sitting inside their cozy cabin with a cup of coffee. However, they fight and compel others to call those end products, Photographs. Is it right? I dont think that I need to answer this question. Any sensible person will regard them as an excellent form of art(that I also do) but not as photographs. Concepts and execution has also lost its meaning and importance. The photo is shot anyhow keeping in mind that the Post Production can change everything and make it a masterpiece.

I think variety is the key of any successful photographer. you may be a vary good photojournalist, but if you have few beautiful landscapes or creative studio portraits in your portfolio, then people will start respecting you for your diverse skill. Because working out of your line of work is something extraordinary and that is what people want to see. It is my personal experience from this exhibition, that people like my personal non-commercial galleries more than my commercial ones. because they already know from my resume that I am a glamour or creative portrait photographer. However, when they see something unexpected they start seeing the other side of me which is equally good. So, its been a constant from my side to develop different styles and varied perspectives. That is what is needed to diversify my work.