Reza Deghati pores over the photographs like a hawk. “So, are you a student of photography?’ he asks a youngster who shows his work — an image of a man ironing clothes and a little boy writing his homework. At the on-going Indian Photography Festival, a portfolio reviewing session has award-winning photojournalist Reza reviewing photographs and giving tips and suggestions to budding photographers. “Even a photocopy of a document prints light or dark but never the same. Two people can look at a thing from a completely different perspective. If a photographer is able to put one’s heart and mind while capturing it, the impact is more.”
Learning experience
During a break, he shares the things he learns when he looks at pictures taken by others. “Every time I look at someone else’s photographs, they have two important things,” he states. “They remind me of the time when I started to take pictures and the mistakes I used to commit. The second and most important reason is that I am fascinated with the the freshness of their voice; things that they see and and I don’t. It is a learning experience.”
The renowned photographer, who has worked all over the world notably for National Geographic calls the Indian Photography Festival, ‘a tribal gathering’ and explains, “Photographers are a tribe; we have seen in the past that every tribe/community have a ritual of creating special moments when they get together, talk, dance and share. That is why this festival is good and important. Sometimes you feel like a beginner in the tribe but when you close your eyes and open, you realise you have become an elder.”
Unique way
Today photography has become an inextricable part of our lives where we want to capture every single moment. We ask if this enormous interest in photography affects quality and he is quick to ask, ‘When was a pen invented? Ever since it was invented, there is incredible quantity of writings but how many Tagores (Rabindranath Tagore) and Hemingways do we have. In Europe, we see a million painting brushes sold every day but how many have become Picassos; it doesn’t matter. Photography is a language and people are learning it in their own way.”
One of his landmark pictures was that of an Afghan boy walking out of his school holding a tiny plant, which went on to become a representation of his NGO Aina.
Recalling the experience, he says, “Imagine a village that is totally bombarded and from amid that devastation a little boy comes out with a seedling. While he was holding it like a treasure in his hand, I asked him what does he want to do with it. He said, “I want to plant it.’ It was fantastic and beautiful especially when you look around the devastation that was happening all around.”
As he gets ready to leave for the airport, we wonder if he found anything interesting in Hyderabad to shoot. “I like the place and the rocks. I would like to come back for two things – the rocks, fascinating festival of flowers (Bathukamma) and importantly what has touched me is the little moment and the connection that I had with all the people. They understand and connect to the message of my pictures.”
