A matter of amateur shots

While venturing around any city, we explore and appreciate its monuments, specialties and beauty, while ignoring the daily moments which are as important as the monuments and contribute to the making of a City.

In a quest for making the invisible visible, through images which are sensitive, nuanced and have deep significance in our lives, the young minds pursuing PG Diploma in Photography & Visual Communication, AJK, MCRC, highlighted interesting aspects and forgotten spaces through their lens.

The photography exhibition showcasing images with stories of the unnoticed people and the spaces of the cities, was on at MF Husain Art Gallery, Jamia Millia Islamia University.

The exhibition features the work of 17 students. Following their passion and with cameras in their hands they clicked the pictures across cities - moving across Delhi and outside. The places included the intriguing Chandni Chowk and Nizamuddin; Surajkund; Varanasi, Ghaziabad; Pushkar and also places as far as Jharkhand and Bihar to name just a few.  

Explaining the concept of one of her pictures, an MCRC student Monica Tiwari says, “There was hardly a moment while pursuing this course when I was without my camera.

I not only clicked pictures but also tried to analyze the daily life of people - of artists at work and labourers going about their daily business; and captured moments where man and animal co-exist and are often in conflict. 

There were moments when I got a shot quite unexpectedly while I had to lie in wait at other times. For instance there is a picture taken at Nizamuddin dargah. It is a picture where a man is having a biryani and giving some of the mutton to this famous cat called ‘Sanjay Singhania’ which lives near the dargah. 

I waited for the kid in the background to come, stare at the cat and giggle. The moment he arrived on the scene, I clicked. this picture has lot to say. For me it was a frame where man and animal co-exist and there is a measure of happiness in the moment.

Without a description, its a simple picture but it has a nice story.” On the other hand, another student Siddharth, says that in some of his pictures he attempts to capture class differentiation. “In one of my pictures some think that I have merged two pictures.

But I haven’t, I have attempted to show the class difference. A poster on a wall shows the popular mode of communication - a cellphone with a finger poised to dial a number contrasted with a cobbler sitting to it on the ground without business next to his shoe shine box. For many, it is a straightforward picture of a cellphone poster but for me it conveys a lot more.”

In all, about 75 photographs have made it to the exhibition and each has a story to share. The pictures deal with a variety of subjects ranging from extreme closeups such as a micro-shot of spider web by Ankush Aggrawal or a photograph of a priest at Bodhgaya by Muddasir Elahi. 

The brain behind the exhibition, Prof. Farhat Basir Khan says, “The course was started five years ago and so far our students have bagged great placements each year, with leading magazines and as assistants to top notch photographers. Our students have also won Sony World Photography Award beating over 60 top universities in 2009.

Amateur Shots is the annual exhibition of our students and is held every year as a platform for students to showcase their unique take of the world we inhabit.”