When the students of Sri Prakash Vidyaniketan were asked how many of them wanted to become photographers, many raised their hands. This was a welcome sight at the World Photography Day celebration by the school on Monday.
Apart from an exhibit of photographs clicked by students on various themes, the school had had invited a number of photographers from the city and outside to address the students. The school had conducted a competition for the students on the theme Beauty of Kailashgiri and Pollution. The photographs received much appreciation from the distinguished guests.
B.K Agarwal, a well known fashion photographer and photography enthusiast, set the ball rolling at the interaction by suggesting that photography should be introduced as a subject along with art and music at the school. The growing popularity of the field is sure to have many takers, he opined.
Suresh Gorantla, a dentist by profession and a photography enthusiast, shared some of his photographs with the students in a presentation and narrated a story about each one of them. Specialising in wildlife and macro photography, Dr. Suresh told the students that one must respect the environment and the animal’s space while clicking. His macro photographs were appreciated by the students and they were surprised that most of them had been captured at VUDA Park in the city. He shared tips on how to take a better photograph without getting very technical. He was also felicitated by the school for his contribution to the field.
Ophthalmologist Gangadhar Reddy shared photographs of the human eye that he had taken as well as a collection of some of the best photographs taken by famous photographers. His talk that went into the history of photography was laced with humorous anecdotes and personal stories including one of him getting a caterpillar to pose for him.
Anusha Yadav, a Bombay-based photographer, designer, photo archivist and the founder of the Indian Memory Project shared her story of how she followed her passion and took to photography. She spoke about her website www.indianmemoryproject.
com that uses crowdsourcing to build a photography archive. She urged students to start with photographing their families and explained the advantages of doing so. She said that a photograph was an individualistic opinion and not the absolute truth as there are many perspectives to a particular shot. She urges the audience to contribute towards her endeavour of building a photo archive.
The school choir sang a song on photography that they had composed. The event ended with a prize distribution ceremony.
