Feedback: An in-depth study by one of my esteemed clientele

One of my clientele was very happy after he appointed me to capture his bother's wedding. Before I delivered him anything he was pleased by what he saw in my website and the way I approached them.

After the delivery was done and he expressed his gratitude, he also promised me to send a feedback to me. It reached me today, so here it is exactly what he wrote to me.

Hi Mr. Arijit,

 

First thing first......my apologies for being late! Got very tied up and hence the delay!

 

I hope u will take the criticisms (if there would be any) in the same spirit in which u r going to take the positives.

 

Coming to the photos, the clarity was awesome and if I put that aspect in my mother's words she said that the photos were so clear that she felt like she was watching it live rather than on the screen.

 

Now, one particular photo of the lot that stood out for me was that of a little girl running down in the middle of the hall. Most of the people liked it in the first instance and so was I. It was very lively and worthy of being framed on the wall. The downside was that that it didnt have any competitors, it was the only photo in this category.

 

There is one thing that is puzzling me a bit is the quantum of photos of food dishes. I mean, like most of other photos, these photos were not able to stop my fingers from clicking on 'next' and we were through those photos in couple of seconds itself (I didnt want to use the word 'quantum', but if I dont write what I felt, it would be unfair to you).

 

While going through all the photos clicked by you and others, there is one thing I observed and learnt is that we humans have tendency to find joy in the photos of humans more. It contain emotions and more than that it contains moments which we witness ourselves but when we see those in the photos, we really feel like being absent in that moment. So to fulfil this human tendency, I guess a marriage album (or for that matter any other album) should contain human reactions/emotions more than anything else. It might help in striking a balance in the album. In other words (in case what i said above limits your creative freedom), when you are clicking photos of something static, you need to be double confident of its quality than of the situations when you are clicking photos of humans. This is very subjective thing, so please correct me if you feel like if i am wrong anywhere in my observation.

 

 

Well, thats it. I have written everything what I felt honestly and dont know whether I was able to put it in right words. And one last thing, the above feedback is written with the intention of helping you in your future ventures/assignments and thats why I went a bit in depth. All in all we were happy from our decision of hiring you for our marriage.

 

Thanks,

Sourav

 

P.S: I didnt make any comparison since you yourself knows where you stand.

After I read this I was overwhelmed by his genuine and sincere effort. Hence I immediately wrote a response to him. Here it goes.

Dear Mr. Modi,

I am overwhelmed by your feedback and I am very happy to see that you took your valuable time to go in-depth for analyzing each and every photo and wrote such a detailed feedback.

I would say two things to you in regards to your feedback. Firstly I am very happy to hear the good things and who won't be. Second but very importantly, the criticism (however, the entire good and bad both are called criticism but not the bad only regarded like that) you did is better. As I feel that listening to the nice words only is bad for any artist's progress. Being judgmental is applying your subjection and that is what creates a difference between two persons. It is very unrealistic and improper to say that whatever you will see on my album will be liked by you. Hence I would appreciate and be honoured if in future also you can take some time off and send me more feedback/criticism about my work.

I can also say that I was honoured by your hospitality and friendliness . I would definitely post some parts of this email on my website.

Artist's Word

I am an artiste because I am vocal but not vocal because I am an artiste. Most of the people who know me, especially my friends, they label me as 'very vocal'. I have learned through the experiences of my life that being vocal and speaking one's mind is not an easy task for many. It takes a lot of courage to speak your mind, espeially when you know that you will in trun be reprimanded. Some have a vague idea that being vocal is one the signs of an artiste. "If you are an artiste, then be vocal first, if not anything else." so speaks the clan of artistes with dog tag hanging around their necks venting (read puking)- "Go 'F' yourself if you don't understand me". Its like wearing a bra and then realising that you also need 'bosoms' to fit in those. Hence 'lets go for a sex change'.

The point is, every artist, or I should rephrase and say that if someone is truely an artiste, then that person should be himself first in nothing else, because he wants to express himself without thinking that what some other artiste would have done if he/she was in this situation and then copy that person. He is an artiste because he is vocal and express without any other's influence. Being vocal is not the issue but being someone what you are not is, and that's what I see people doing and they often mistake me as one of them.

I detest some of my fellow colleagues who name/tag me as expressionist. Expression through art is not expressionism, its a lost art in itself. It is if I may refer, a subjective representation without physical reality. On the other hand my approach involves 100% physical reality and most of the time is journalistic one. I am brought up in a family of professionals of different trade as well as artiste of different genres. My education was a motley of realism and aesthetics through out my childhood. I was always given the liberty of choosing every little thing in my life. I was never pampared with luxury (Oh! who are fooling, we couldn't afford any), always shown the balance of love and life, made to shoulder responsibilities when needed, made to deal with exigency. And according to me this what is realism. I strived to find the right place for myself in the social skeleton for almost 3 years. After 5 frustrating and suffocating attempts at different odd jobs I finally saw that creating something I always loved that is what I always wanted to do. I don't take photos to win a competition or supersede someone's work. I work with my own flow. Life had taught me to adjust the sails according to the directions of the wind however I never forgot to sail for the unknown at times, and I think this is aesthetics.

I am an individual who is vocal and to show what he sees, he became a photographer. Why photography? Now that is another story.