More than ever before, the zeal for photography has reached a pinnacle in the region. Now, amateur photographers are not only exploring this medium for creative expression with added vigour but the sheer amount of investment in high-end camera bodies and lenses has gone ballistic. While social media platforms have given many amateurs a space to project their works, the city’s scenic landscape with a thriving belt of flora and fauna has augmented this passion among many.
And if anything truly shows the mega interest that photography has aroused in the city, it is the number of photography clubs and groups that have sprung up. The city’s oldest clubs — the Visakha Camera Club — has witnessed this sea change in people’s interest towards photography since its inception in 1991. Now the club conducts four to five photography workshops a year. “There was a time in the 70s when I used to be reprimanded by my father for buying camera rolls and had to take money from my mother to buy the camera films without the knowledge of my father to explore my passion. Starting a photography studio for a person hailing from a business community was considered as a bad move. A lot has changed since this. Today our club has members who have kits worth more than Rs 20 lakh and are exploring the medium with passion and utmost seriousness,” says club’s founder Bijay Kumar Agrawal.
Passionate photographers like Suresh Gorantla, a dentist by profession, have invested over Rs. 7 lakh in setting up a personal kit.
In the past one year, Mr. Suresh has stretched the panorama of photography to create matchless images with a bird’s eye view. He was the first in the city to introduce the concept of aerial photography through his DJI Phantom 3 quadcopter.
To introduce photography at the school level, Sri Prakash Vidyaniketan is one of the few schools in the city that has its own photography club for the past five years. “The idea was to give a platform to the students to enhance their imagination and learn the basics of photography at an early stage in life,” says Vasu Prakash, school’s director.
Similarly, institutions like GITAM University has a photography club called ‘G Studio’ wherein members equipped with DSLRs meet and shoot pictures by going around the city and also cover college events.
