For ace photographer Raghu Rai and son Nitin Rai, Wednesday evening proved to be a nostalgic one. It saw the first batch of one-year diploma students put up their first photo show at the Raghu Rai Centre for Photography. It is the first full fledged centre in the Capital which is run by a guru of photography with mentors like veteran artist Krishen Khanna.
With the group show, aspiring photographers at the All India Fine Arts and Crafts’ Society (AIFACS) took a step towards “professional photography”.
On being asked to compare photography and students of then and now, septuagenarian Rai said: “Earlier the ‘process’ of photography was a challenge, so we were more adventurous by nature. If we ever got a wide angle, we would go mad and share it with others. Today, the technically superior cameras have auto colour, auto focus and auto angle, so the new generation of photographers don’t have to go through that tedious process of ‘fixing’ a camera; 80 per cent of their part is already done. It is flawlessly easy. Rest is them – which makes all the difference.”
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The show captures various themes: from life and death tales in black and white to abandoned dogs’ home at Chattarpur, green room shots of the National School of Drama to the ‘awkward’ moments of gay-lesbian protest, ‘ghostly’ to ‘hilarious’ moments on the lens.
Apart from some pearls of wisdom and appreciation from Rai and Khanna, the launch also saw two extraordinary photographers from the centre, Sandy Ford and Geet Gemini, being awarded for their “passion” in photography with a trophy and certificate.