My Mejda – Benu Sen: A Legend in Photography
I really feel privileged to witness how Benu Sen became a legendary pictorialist from an Aviation Engineering trainee. Fate probably had a role to determine the legend he became, but he would never have reached the zenith of his greatness without the sheer brilliance he possessed and the relentless effort he put into his art. It is difficult to chronicle the brilliance of such a maestro in few words, and I really do not know where to start. However, I shall try to recount in brief his contributions towards promotion of photography, achievements, honours, the various positions he held and a few personal anecdotes. Even though he explored all the genres in Photography but I have dwelled upon his creativity only in few fields and especially in Spirituality and Women’s psychology.
Benu Sen, whom we fondly referred to as ‘Mejda’ (second eldest brother in our joint family), popularly known as Benuda or Sir, the eldest son of Monindranath Sengupta and Prabhavati Devi, was born on May 26, 1932, at his uncle’s house in Bagbazar. Apart from being a master photographer, he also was an ace craftsman. He made a camera, an enlarger which we still use in PAD, light stands, tripods, filters etc. The craftsmanship was not limited within the domain of photography. He could stitch cloths and leather articles. He was an excellent swimmer, a cricketer and above all a dare devil person.
In 1957, Mr. Benu Sen founded the Photographic Association of Dumdum (PAD) with a few like-minded friends, now PAD is a world-renowned Photographic Institution having nurtured many internationally acclaimed photo artists. Mejda induced all our family members in the realm of photography, all of whom served or are serving PAD in different capacities in different point in times.
Mejda’s remarkable contributions in photography are, ‘BS4’ – an extra ordinary fine grain developer for tropical countries, ‘Tonorama’ – a technique to obtain Tone-separation using Solarisation and Macro-pictography. He introduced colour photogram and colour separation from Black & White Negatives in India.
I think the introduction of the ‘Free Systematic Photographic Course, which incidentally was my idea, is one of the most significant contributions of PAD and it could not have been possible without his guidance and active involvement. Since the introduction of the course in 1968, he taught at PAD till his last days. As a result, PAD became a full-fledged photography education center free of cost.
Mejda had great leadership quality. Under his leadership PAD organized nine International Photographic Conferences, twelve all India Seminars, fifty-three international Salons and several local exhibitions to promote and propagate photography. He organized a number of Solo Exhibitions and Group Shows, presented numerous papers and published a number of articles, delivered T.V. & Radio talks on photography. He authored the book ‘Art of Photography’ and co-authored two important books ‘Experimental Photography’ and ‘Learn Photography’. He served as jury in many International and All India salons and competitions in India and abroad. He was simultaneously a teacher, researcher, administrator and preacher. He has produced numerous internationally renowned photo artists and taught several thousand students. I, being his younger brother, was fortunate to receive his love, affection and guidance for about 50 years and learned many things about photography. People used to say that I am his ‘Lakshman’ brother.
Benu Sen is considered a legend in the world of pictorial photography. His contribution to the development of world photography is unsurpassed to that of any other Indian photographer. Under his supervision, a state-of-the-art photography department was set up in the Indian Museum in 1973, which he headed till retirement in 1990. In 2000, he was awarded the National Award by the Government of India for his contributions in Photography; needless to say, a rare fit for any photographer.
Benu Sen is the third person in the world to receive the coveted honor of ‘Master of Photography’ (MFIAP) from the Federation International de la Art Photographique. The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain conferred him fellowship (FRPS) in 1975. He obtained EFIAP in 1970 and ESFIAP in 1982. He was awarded numerous honorary titles such as Hon. FJIAP (Japan), Hon. FNPAS (Sri Lanka), Hon. FPBS. (Bangladesh), Hon. FPAD (India), Hon. FCOS (Romania), Hon.PAB, Hon. SOP etc. He was crowned with the most prestigious honour Hon. EFIAP in 2006.
Mejda was the third president of the Photographic Association of Dumdum (PAD), the third president of the Federation of Indian Photography. He was also Vice President of the India International Photographic Council as well as Calcutta Photo Club Coordination Center and Head of The Photography Department of the Indian Museum.
There are very few people in this world who are blessed with the quality of remaining humble despite glorious achievements. Mejda was one such fine example. His presence used to make everyone around him feel very cordial, comfortable and courageous. Despite such stupendous achievements in photography, he remained a humble man, easily approachable by all and sundry. His ability to make people feel special was remarkable. This is a quality by which a true teacher transcends himself to greatness. He left a long-lasting impression on others.
Through his camera, he brings out the unfamiliar and unseen context of the known world that acquires a new look, a new meaning and above all a beauty that has so long remained unnoticed. The commonplace becomes uncommon as it is painted in a new hue. And that’s where we meet the artist’s, mystical human heart. He traversed through and explored various branches of photography. What distinguishes this renowned photographer is his sensitive soul evident from his subject selection, use of darkroom techniques and ultimate transformation of the mundane to something creative and ethereal. His still life, travel photographs and experimental photographs all bear his insignia and are easily recognized amidst the chaos of thousands of photographs.
In his artistic pursuit Benu Sen proves his excellence through his pictures. His pictures are proof of not only his great mastery over technique, but also reveals his sensitive mind. His perception of colour harmony, tonal balance, composition and capability of using the right technique to bring out the essence of the theme and aesthetics are unmatched.
A true artist like Benu Sen can freely wander in different genres of art. However, I feel that his pictures relating to women’s psychology and ‘age study’ are matchless in the world. Most of these pictures were created using artificial lighting and Benu Sen was a master in studio lighting. The following paragraphs will provide a flavor of his creation:
Mother and Child- is one of the most common subjects in Art. God cannot be everywhere, so He created mother. Both in Oriental and Occidental Art, images of ‘Mother’ play a pivotal role in the accepted hierarchy of genres. The eternal relationship of ‘Mother and Child’ has been depicted in the field of photography by many photo artists. Mejda created his masterpiece, ‘Mother’ in 1957. It is a high key portrait of a mother and child that employs Raphael style composition. It received applause and awards from different parts of the world. It is the first Indian picture published in British Almanac in 1960. About sixty-five years have elapsed, but I am yet to see such a pleasing picture like ‘Mother’, though many pictures are presented on that theme every year in different Salons.
Portraiture – Portraits are one of the most fascinating genres in all forms of art and Benu Sen was a doyen of Portrait Photography. He produced number of masterpieces in women’s portraits. He created classic characteristic portraits, beautiful creative portraits as well as experimental portraits in colour. His portraits employ both low key and high key tonal ranges as well as mid-tones and were shot, both indoor and outdoor. He was a great master in Portraiture lighting. Some of his creations are included in this article.
Spirit of Indian-ness (based on Indian Philosophy & Women’s psychology) – Benu Sen photographed myriad dimensions of Indian life, society and philosophy. In his endeavor, he was mostly influenced by the Indian artistic tradition, which evolved with an emphasis on inducing special spiritual or philosophical states in the audience and with their symbolic representation. The philosophy guiding the Indian artist has been ‘Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram’ – leading him to the everlasting quest for truth, goodness and beauty. Benu Sen’s FRPS & MFIAP Honors were on this theme. Few examples are :
EVENING GLORY is a beautiful creative portrait depicting a Bengali woman offering her evening prayer. It not only symbolizes the cultural activity and spiritual outlook but also conveys serene and sublime beauty.
BEAU IDEAL is an example where women‘s psychology and inner feeling are more dominating. The flower symbolises the beauty of nature.
EGYPTIAN aptly captures the grandeurs of a young lady depicting that every woman is a queen at heart.
SHYNESS is a portrait of the hands of a young lady. This picture is characterized by exceptional lighting and tonal qualities as well expression of hands which are so tender and adoring.
Other notable pictures in this genre are Third Eye, Memorial, Forbidden Flower, Lost Horizon, Ivy, etc.
Still-life is a particular genre of visual art, where the artist creates the whole set up by himself with the help of some inanimate objects according to his choice and imagination. Benu Sen was often at his creative best in this genre.
Humanity – I don’t think it would be irrelevant to try to highlight his humanity in today’s global turmoil. We see that the seat of humanity is not in ‘Aishwarya’ (wealth), but in compassion and love.
CO-EEXISTENCE: Bible says “Man shall not live by bread alone”. Indian philosophy also similarly says – Man is not happy by possessing wealth only. Like food for physical health. He needs nutrition for mental health also. This is true for everybody, a daily worker also. Mere food can not satisfy all his needs. How many people can think of it and how many have really endeavored to establish this through their vision and creations. Only a sensitive soul can realize that and Benu Sen had that quality of mind, which is reflected through this picture.
REQUIEM is a candid photograph, where he tried to establish the fact that one happens to be a ruler so long he has the power, wealth and followers. But power of wealth, society and youth are all transitory and pride for those things is mere foolishness. Time can grasp all these in a moment and this is a bare reality. Once the power is gone even the weaker dominates over you. The visionary power and modesty of the soul of the author are apparent from this photograph. A common day to day event is transformed into a highly philosophical theme by the magical visionary power and modesty of mind of the author.
He was an institution by himself; he had infinite knowledge in photography and never hesitated to impart his knowledge patiently. He never refused anyone who came to him to learn something. That’s why the following shloka of Upanishad is very applicable to him:
Om Purnamadah Purnamidang Purnat Purnamudachyate.
Purnasya Purnamadaya Purnamebabashisyate.
Oh Shantih Shantih Shantih ..
That is full, it is full. It has grown from full to full.
By accepting the fullness of the whole, the whole remains.
In fact, even being a family member, he was almost a saint. He dreamt in the language of photography and meditated in it. Photography was his first love, photography was his life, and PAD was his blood, till the last day of his life (17th May 2011). He continued his efforts of promotion and propagation of photographic art and sciences till his last days.
We know art plays a very significant role in elevating man’s mind and soul. It gives birth to innovative ideas, aesthetic awareness and creative pursuit. Photography is one such avenue for creative satisfaction. The whole life of Benu Sen was a living testimony of this idea.
Ten years have elapsed since Benu Sen, our former President, the great master and a legendary Photo-Artist has passed away. But we always feel his presence; it seems that he is around us. There are stars in the sky, which are dead millions of years ago; but we still get the light of those stars because of their eternal distance in space and they will continue to glow further for unknown years to come. Such is the case with my Mejda, your Benuda, who though absent is very much with us, and we are fortunate enough to be inspired and encouraged to proceed to reach our goal and to carry on our duty for promotion and propagation of photographic art through our regular activities as guidance set down by our predecessors and revised time to time as and when required.
Let the creative genius of Benu Sen continue to motivate the photo artists of the coming ages. Let his sensitivity, vision, artistry and brilliance inspire us all to reach new zeniths of artistic excellence.
2021 October: Page 38, WPAI Newsletter
Creative Photography using TSP
“The idea of beauty is the fundamental idea of everything. In the world we see only distortions of the fundamental idea, but art, by imagination, may lift itself to the height of this idea. Art is therefore akin to creation.” – Leo Tolstoy
- Introduction
Mankind appreciated all that is beautiful in nature and felt an urge to create beauty through imitation and imagination; and thus, art is born. Art is born from the will to express, express what one has experienced, felt and learnt in his journey through the life. Art is a creative process. It originates in a sensitive human soul which cannot help but communicating what it has seen, heard and felt. According to Aristotle, Art is the idealized form of the artist and not the true representation of nature or object. I consider Art as an acronym of Absolutely Relative Thoughts. Photographic art is born when the artist uses his tools as a means of transmitting his thoughts of realisation, visualisation and experience in an artistic manner. Even
though Photography is the youngest branch of visual art, it has emerged as the most powerful means of communication and avenue of creative satisfactions. Pictorial photography is the particular branch of photography which deals with art or art for which photography is the medium. The word ‘Pictorial’ has been chosen as the synonym of art. Pictorialism is the method of photographic representation which aims primarily at aesthetics, emotional and intellectual effect. Photography has been enjoying enormous popularity as a medium of art over the last few decades and has emerged as the most powerful avenue for creative satisfaction. With the advancement of Digital Technology in recent years, there has been a sea change in the delivery of Photography. Advent of Digital Photography has reshaped the art of photography to the greatest extent. A sensitive artist can transform an ordinary object into a beautiful piece of art by
technical manipulation, imagination and creative visualisation which is simultaneously aesthetically pleasing, emotionally appealing and intellectually stimulating. A pictorialist does not simply record reality, but produces a visual statement which brings out the theme, story and the feeling behind the photograph leaving viewers startled and forces them to think on it. - Creativity:
Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is created and it is characterised by originality, expressiveness and imagination .
According to Rod Judkins– “Creativity isn’t a switch that’s flicked on or off; it’s a way of seeing, engaging and responding to the world around you”. Rabindranath Tagore said “It is the response of man’s creative soul to the call o f t h e r e a l ” . I t h i n k f o r c r e a t i v i t y “Imagination is more important than knowledge” as mentioned by Albert Einstein. I would also like to define “Creativity is an intellectual process by which new, exciting and worthwhile things are created.” I also consider it as an acronym of Creator’s Representation (of) Emotional Aesthetic Transcendental Intellectual Visualisation Innovatively Transformed (to a) Yummy. - Creative Photography:
Creative Photography is the particular branch of photography where the photographer injects his or her creative thought of realisation in artistic line. It is nothing but to see the world in a different way and to present the mundane elements in the picture space in an aesthetically pleasing manner. That is new way of looking at an image with innovative and intuitive mind through manipulation and techniques. Creative techniques aim to show how familiar subjects can be transformed and recreated by an imaginative approach to give it a new look. It may be considered as an experiment using the various techniques available to the photographers. Earlier photographers used to apply various pre and post camera techniques for creative photography. Differential focussing, blurring, panning, zooming in and out, movement, glass textures, streak and many other improvised devices during taking shots as per pre-visualisation while many darkroom techniques viz. Combination printing (montage & superimposition), Solarisation, Tone separation, Tonorama, Bas relief, Twist &Twirl, and many such techniques used to be applied as per post-visualisation for creative photography. Now with the advent of digital photography we mostly use various editing software for manipulations. Photoshop is the most powerful and widely used software which helps the creative photographers to convert an ordinary shot into a fantastic and amazing visual which was unnoticed before manipulation. One may also take help of few other software like Daz3D, Matlab, Poser, Carrara, Apophysis, etc.. for creating figures, shapes, patterns and also composite pictures according to his ideas even without going to outdoor or taking indoor shots and then converting created images into a piece of art by manipulation. In this write-up I will deal with one such technique known as Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) using computer programming. - Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP)
TSP is an interesting algorithm based on well-known optimisation problem known to the students of Operation Research and its application in the field of photography is also available to us for quite some time. TSP as defined by Wikipedia is: “Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, what is the shortest possible route that visits each city exactly once and returns to the origin city?” I am working on TSP for the few months to draw different continuous line drawing for my “Mathematical Photography” for which l had to develop a program with the help of my students Dr. Ammlan Ghosh, Dr. Ms Adrija Bhattacharyya and Mr. Bidyut Gupta using Python where I may vary the number of centres, line-width, line-style and colours. Here also I had to go for number of trials by varying parameters to find out the best visual according to my choice. - On My TSP Works
I generated few fantastic continuous outlines which were finally edited with Photoshop to have a beautiful appearance in combination with suitable background and the original image or part thereof.
Figure-1: Provides various outputs varying the number of centres of a portrait I am providing some stages of my work without going into much detail for easy understanding of my readers as follows:
Figure-2: Demonstrates the stages of a particular work ‘Philosopher’ ‘Fantasy’ depicts the figure of a lady wearing vibrant red colour jacket, beach hat of analogous colours, a very neatly designed elegant skirt of sober colour and stilettos high heels. Other than the jacket and high heel shoes of the lady which are the real objects, judicious and thoughtful conversion of all other elements created using computer aided tools like TSP and Matlab, makes the figure of an elegant, dignified and beautiful lady. It is an allegorical representation of an amazing lady. This wonderful creation from a simple mundane object, a red jacket hanging from a string, is made possible using the great imaginative power, master technical skill and unique sense of colour combination and compositional concept. A simple mundane object is transformed into a piece of sublime beauty by creative expression and technical skill of the artist. A few more examples of creative photography using TSP are included herewith. (P1-P16) - Conclusion
There is neither any hard and fast rule nor technique to produce creative photography nor is there any specific guideline or step for creative photography, because – creativity cannot be taught, it comes from within. But it is a fact that those who create some of the most creative photos in the world, have great passion for photography and art in general as well as creative mind. Creative techniques help them expedite their creativity. Modern digital technology with various editing tools will go a long way to promote and propagate creative photography as a form of visual art trailing other forms of artistic medium. May TSP technique go a long way to produce wonderful creative photography as a visual art! Let Creative photography as a form of Visual Art form continue to bring pleasure, peace and tranquillity to the sensitive soul of the viewers and prosperity and happiness to the society through newer creations. - Acknowledgement
I express my sincere gratitude and heartfelt thanks to those who directly or indirectly helped me in preparing this article.
2021 September: Page 4, Viewfinder
Louvre Museum – A Paradise for Connoisseurs of Art
Sublime ecstasy permeated through my heart and soul when I visited Paris, the city known as ‘La Ville Lumière’ or the city of lights, primarily because of its role during the age of enlightenment. Paris has remained the capital of art and cultural movement for the last couple of centuries and the highlights of the tour was a visit, no short of a pilgrimage, to Musee de Louvre on the 23rd of May 2018. I never thought that a humble artist like me would ever have the good fortune to see Louvre, the treasure of Art. The obsession of fulfilling my long-cherished dream was ultimately transpired and I was overwhelmed by supreme joy and sheer delight. I recently had the privilege of touring Greece to participate in a photography workshop and thereafter visited Italy and France. Italy and France are known to be the cradle of art for most of the world’s artists. For artists, it is always a dream to come to Paris and exhibit works. Even Rabindranath Tagore himself could not overcome the fascination of Paris. He had his first exhibition of artwork in Paris in May 1930 at the Gallery Pigalle .
Shashikumar Hesh was the first Bengali artist to go to Paris in 1896 to study art for two years. Amrita Shergill enrolled her name in the Ecole de Beaux-Arts in 1929 to study art and spent five years there. All the famous artists of the world spent some days in Paris at one time or another. Now almost every year some Indian artists come to Paris to learn painting or to exhibit their works. There are many art centres in Paris, notably among them are Louvre Museum, Picasso Museum, Orse Museum and Pompidou Center, Montmartre Museum, house of Claude Monet and Van Gogh are some of the places of special interest, but Louvre Museum is the jewel in the crown so far as art and sculpture is concerned. My discussion, therefore, is mainly about Louvre Museum.
Mrinal Banerjee and I arrived in Paris on 21st May from Milan. It was almost afternoon to reach the hotel and after a little rest, we headed straight towards the Eiffel Tower by Metro. The most convenient and cheapest way to travel in Paris is by metro rail as there are many branches of metro rail spread over in different parts of the city at three levels. But one needs to exercise caution while traversing through the city, as Mrinal sadly fell victim of pick-pockets and lost some money. Fortunately, credit cards and other valuable papers were saved. That day we spent few hours in nights in and around the Eiffel Tower, had our dinner in a nearby restaurant and returned to our hotel after mid night. It is better to note that in summer the sun shines till around 6:30 pm.
We woke up late the next morning and left for Louvre Museum at 10 o’clock, by metro. After entering through the back of the museum and initially could not work out where to buy the entrance ticket. Many people were entering but no ticket counter was to be found. Some beautiful statues could be seen from outside. After wandering around for some time, we finally came to the huge open space inside. There was the famous glass pyramid, towards the main entrance and many people crowded there. However, no entrance for the actual museum could be found there. On enquiring, we came to know that the museum remains closed on every Tuesday and that was Tuesday and we were naturally disappointed. The Louvre Museum was a special attraction for us. Fortunately, we were staying in Paris for the next couple of days. So, for rest of the day we took a bus ride for 40 Euros for the ‘Open City Tour’ and fruitfully spent the day. May 23rd is a memorable day in our life. We got up early, had our breakfast and came to the metro station and took the train to the Louvre Museum station. The Paris metro is like a giant spider web and therefore, it is better to ask before boarding the train. We changed lines from Porte De Clignancoutr (via M4) to Chatelet Les Halles (via M1) for the Musee du Louvre, and from there straight through the Carousel Shopping Mall to the ticket counter. Tickets cost 20 euros- 15 euros entrance fee and 5 euros audio guide. From information counter we collected Museum maps which are available in different languages. After security check we collected the audio guide and went inside. The Louvre Museum, a monolithic renaissance palace and one of the largest museums and most visited in the world. It is the longest building in the Europe, stretching more than three Eifel Towers laid end to end. Across an expansive plaza of million square feet, the imposing façade of the Louvre Museum rises like a citadel in the Paris sky. Louvre was a palace before becoming a museum. Built like an enormous horseshoe on the east bank of the Seine River is the huge Louvre at Arrondissement in the heart of Paris. During twelfth-thirteenth centuries, the Louvre Palace was built as a fortress during the reign of King Philip II, some of the ruins of which are kept in the basement of the museum. Louvre Museum was established by King Francis I in the sixteenth century as his personal collection gallery, his famous being the portrait of ‘Mona Lisa’. Collections continued to increase due to royal patronage. After the reign of King Louis XIV of Versailles in 1682., it became a royal museum. During the French Revolution of 1793, the Louvre was recognized as the National Art Museum, and on 10th August 1793, 537 paintings were exhibited and private collections were also opened to the public. The main entrance of the modern Louvre is as famous as the museum itself. Standing 21-meter high is a huge glass pyramid built in 1989 by the Chinese American architect I.M. Pei. Traditionalist felt that it destroyed the dignity of the renaissance courtyard, while the progressive admirers hailed it as a brilliant synergy between the old structure and the architecture, a symbolic link between the old and the new. The Louvre Museum houses artefacts dating from antiquity to the mid-nineteenth century (7th millennium BC to 1850). After 1850, European paintings were transferred to the museum at Aceh and the Pompidou Center. The Louvre Museum houses about a million artefacts. Of these, about 35,000 are open to the public. The fact that an estimated five weeks is required to properly appreciate its 35,000 art pieces, gives the idea of enormity of the Louvre Museum. However, Louvre is renowned for its huge collection of feminine art, the most famous trio being, the Monalisa, The Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory. The Louvre Museum is divided into five floors: Level -2, -1,0,1,2, and each floor is named after three French historians and are called the Sully wing, the Richelieu wing and the Denon wing. We decided to take an abbreviated tour of the museum since we had only about 6 hours. We studied the museum map to find out where the Mona Lisa is, and went to room 704 in Level 2+. Then from there to Picasso’s house, Ingres’ house then Venus the Milo. We visited other galleries in hurry, and although there was no joy in this wandering but we were left out of option. Later we saw the ruins of the medieval palace of Louvre and European sculptures on the ground floor.
Sully Wing – The oldest part of the Louvre is Sully wing. On the third floor is a collection of French works of art – paintings, drawings, prints, etc. One of the most notable works is Jean Augustus Dominic’s 18th-century oil painting ‘The Turkish Bath’. The first and second floors of Sully have archaeological resources. Among the many artefacts and sculptures in 30 houses of Egyptian archaeology, are the famous ‘Seated Scribe’ and the gigantic statue of Pharaoh Ramesses which is a surprise to see. On the first floor, the Greek artefacts include ‘Aphrodite’ or ‘Venus the Milo’. On the ground floor there is a completely different scenario— the ruins of the medieval palace of the Louvre are preserved there. Richelieu Wing – The third floor of the Richelieu section features European art from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. Notable among them are the paintings of the eminent painters Reuben and Rembrandt. Of particular note are Ian Vermeier’s Lesmaker and Ian Van Ike’s fifteenth-century work The Virgin of Chancellor Ronla. On the second floor of the Richelieuis there is a store of decorative art, such as clocks, furniture, porcelain items and tapestries. On the same floor there is the house of Napoleon III, beautifully decorated with expensive objects. From this it can be inferred that Louvre was like the interior of the palace when it was there. At the collection of sculptures of the first and the underground floor – one finds two wide spaces wrapped in glass arranged around the work of Cure Peugeot and Cure Marley. In the 18th century, Gil Kustar created a huge marble sculpture, Cure Marley, a stable for horses, a mourner, and a plaintiff near Philip Pot’s tomb. On the first floor there is a collection of ancient art from the near east. Note: The Code of Hammurabi is a large basalt stall of eighteenth-century Babylonian law. Denon Wing – It is the most ‘crowded’ section of the Louvre since Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ housed on the second floor of the Denon wing. Among the other best works are Paolo Veronica’s ‘Wedding Feast at Cana’ and Jacques-Louis David’s ‘Conclusion of Emperor Napoleon-1’. In addition, ‘The Nike of Samthres’, also known as ‘The Winged Victory’, is exhibited at an important location in the balcony connecting Denon and Sully wings. On the first floor are nineteenth – century Renaissance sculptures, Antonio Canova’s marble ‘Psyche Revived by Cupid Kiss’, and the more popular sculpture Michelangelo’s ‘The Dying Slave’, in addition to ancient Roman and Etruscans collections. Room number 8 on the same floor has artefacts from Asia, Africa, Oceania and America. Medieval European sculptures are housed at the basement. The Mona Lisa or ‘La Gioconda’ as is called in French, is a half-length portrait of. Created in the ‘Sfumato’ style it is a portrait of Italian noblewoman Lisa Gherardini. Measuring 31×21 inch, the portrait on a poplar wood panel is considered a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as “the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world”. No adjective is enough to praise this wonderful creation of Leonardo da Vinci. The painting’s novel qualities include the subject’s enigmatic expression, the monumentality of the composition, the subtle modelling of forms, and the atmospheric illusionism. Antonio Conova’s marble sculpture ‘Psyche Revived by Cupid Kiss’ is based on the story ‘Cupid and Psyche’ from Lucius Apulias’ novel ‘The Golden Ass’. The sculpture was first unveiled by Colonel John Campbell in 1787. This sculpture is considered as one of the best works of art of the neoclassical era. It depicts an emotional moment of fictional lover characters. Shortly after waking up, Psyche fell in love with Cupid. In this unearthly sculpture of the artist, the difference between his skin and the surrounding condition can be understood by texture of the carved cloth worn by Psyche. The success of great works of art is here. The sculpture is 61 inches high, 6 inches long and 40 inches wide. Aphrodite of Milos, also known as Venus the Milo, is an ancient Greek sculpture of Helenistic period. Initially it was thought to be the creation of the sculptor Praxtels; An inscription later reveals that it was a work of art by Alexandros of Antioch, dated 130–100 BC. The statue is believed to be of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. It is a 6-foot-8-inch-tall marble sculpture, slightly larger than a living human figure in size. At the time of discovery, part of one arm of the statue and the original pillar were lost. The statue was discovered on the island of Milos in Greece, hence the name of the statue. Jacques Louis David’s ‘Coronation of Napoleon’ depicts Napoleon’s coronation. David did the work in oil-paint. It started on December 21, 1805 and ended in January 1808 for a salary of twenty-four thousand Francs. His student George Ruget helped him in this task. The painting remained in David’s custody until 1819, when it was transferred to the royal gallery. Later, in 1838, he visited the Royal Museum of Versailles and in 1889 it was housed in the Louvre Museum. Since then, this painting measuring 20 feet 4 inches x 32 feet 1 inch, is in the Louvre Museum. David was allowed to watch the coronation ceremony. All the people present at the event came to David’s workshop and posed, not just Napoleon. In 1798, Napoleon gave David a “sitting” once. Pope Pius VII came to give a ‘sitting’ and blessed David. When Napoleon came to see the artist, he greeted him, although David had to change the image many times because of Napoleon’s whimsy. In neoclassical thought, the composition of the image revolves around many axes, although Napoleon is the main attraction. The French neoclassical artist Jean Auguste Dominic Ingres’ oil painting ‘Valpicon Bedar’, painted in 1808, has been in the Louvre since 1879. This is a natural nude painting in terms of aesthetics which is fairly depicts sublime beauty. Art is a creative process. Creativity cannot be taught to anyone but must be mastered through realization, perception and practice. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to observe different works of art. The more artworks are cultivated, researched and comprehended, the better it is. From that angle, the Louvre Museum is a treasure house as innumerable of world’s greatest artworks are on display for the connoisseurs and students alike, to educate and enlighten themselves. A lot of knowledge about colour scheme, composition, different thoughts and imaginations, techniques, expressions and their application can be learned from the exhibits. I wish that our art college students must visit the Louvre Museum to enrich themselves. Therefore, my humble request to the government and the institutional authorities is to make some arrangements for educational trips to Italy and France, the cradle of art, for those who are studying art, at least for 7 days at the postgraduate level. Art stimulates the human mind and with it also enhances aesthetics and intensify creativity. The artist revolves around the cultured atmosphere of creation, inspiring him to transform mundane to ethereal. Art is truth, truth is art – as has been pronounced through the phrase Satyam Shivam Sundaram. The works of masters that are in the Louvre Museum, their beauty and majesty transcend us to a higher level of understanding. May the aesthetics of the Louvre illuminate our mind and enrich our lives, bring joy happiness and peace.
2021 August: Page 4, Viewfinder
Professor Andreas L. Andreou – A Maestro and a Humanist
This article is dedicated to Prof. Andreas L. Andreou of Cyprus, one of the most prominent photo artists of our time. The Cyprian Diamond Photographer has been bestowed with numerous awards and prestigious honours for his outstanding contribution in the field of creative photography. The other facet of Prof. Andreas is his untiring effort to promote and propagating love, peace and international friendship through pictorial photography.
Photography is the scientific process to obtain a sketch with the help of light. It plays a significant role in every sphere of life – from application in scientific experiments, documentation of the saga of human life and tragedies, to creative expressions –photography is omnipresent. Professional photographers earn their livelihood, amateurs record their sweet memories and artists use it to express their feelings. However, with the advancement of scientific and digital technology, the act of taking a picture has become quite easy. Every second man on the street has become a photographer and even without elementary knowledge of photography people are successfully participating in Photography Salons. But Professor Andreas belongs to a different league. He has an intrinsic ability to express his ideas and execute them in his own distinct style with admirable command over the medium. We know that there is a difference between a ‘photo’ and a ‘picture’. A picture has some special qualities which separates it from an ordinary photograph. I like to recapitulate a few words for the convenience of the readers. Photography excels in art only when it conveys the feelings and emotions of the artist. According to Aristotle, the great Greek Philosopher, it is the “Idealized form of the Artist”. The artist carefully selects objects of this mundane world and presents them in such a way that these mundane objects acquire a whole new meaning in the picture. Choosing the right subject, image proportions, presentation, colour scheme, art-technique and above all a message are prime considerations of artistic photography. Thus a well-rounded picture should have a number of features such as good composition, use of appropriate colour, technical perfection and proper theme and above all humanity which moves
the mind of the artist and the viewers. In Sanskrit ”Indriyevyah parang manah” means the mind is the controller of the senses, the mind drives them.
The above points which culminate in a sense of aesthetic pleasure in the mind of the artist and viewers make a picture complete and enjoyable. This is the difference between a ‘photographer with artistic blend’ and a ‘snap shooter’ in general. Many times we even use different symbols to convey various inner meanings of the photograph so that the message of the photograph is easily understood in the minds of the connoisseurs. Symbolism is also an important aspect in pictorial photography. Aesthetics of the image in the presence of that symbol influence the statement of the photograph or enable the image to evolve into a beautiful story. But is there really a difference between an ‘artist’ and an ‘ordinary person’? Like ordinary people, the artists also go to the market with bags, tell stories, and watch games, read books, etc. So where is the difference? There is a difference. Many will say that the main tool of an artist is his eyes, what is called “Indriyevyah Parang Mana” as already mentioned. The mind controls the senses. So what his eyes see is in the direction of the mind. We all know that Prof. Andreas is a world-renowned artist in the arena of photography, who left no stone unturned to explore various branches of photography. Through his camera lens, an unfamiliar and unseen context of the known world has acquired a new look, a new meaning and last but not the least a beauty which has so long remained unnoticed. The common place becomes uncommon because it has taken up the hue. And that’s where we meet the artist’s mystical human heart. I don’t think it would be irrelevant to try to highlight his humanity during today’s global hype. We see that the seat of humanity is not only in ‘Aishwarya’ (wealth), it also has the fragrance of very ordinary beauty.
I did not have the good fortune to see all the pictures of Prof. Andreas but as a Chairman of Dum Dum Salon I had the opportunity to go through quite a number of his pictures during last two decades and many other works published in International Salon catalogues. However, from those it may be said that he is not only a great artist but also possesses of a deep sensitive mind. He dwells upon all genres of Photography. What distinguishes this renowned photographer is his clear and impressive work with his very sensitive soul reflecting in subject selection, use of computer aided technology and thereby modifying those to a creative form. Portrait is a most fascinating genre in all form of arts. Legendary artists of all media have created many masterpieces. Prof. Andreas also has produced number of masterpieces in women’s portraits both characteristic and experimental. His still life, travel photographs and experimental photographs all bear his insignia and are easily recognised amidst the chaos of thousands of photographs. Following paragraphs will provide a flavour of his creation.
Seeing and visualizing are two different aspects, though both involve human eye and brain. Man sees with his eyes but visualizes with his mind, more specifically with his sensitive mind; therefore is the saying ‘the mind knows more than the eyes see’. When light falls on an object man can see it with one of his sensory organ – the eyes. But when he goes deep into the subject he visualizes something with the eyes of his mind. No material barrier can stop him seeing the object. The artist visualizes the object with its qualities that impresses his mind most. This is also possible by keeping the eyelids closed or keeping the eyes covered. Only a true artist possesses that visionary power, which is apparent from his picture Hand Eyes. “Water water everywhere not a drop to drink”. Food is what sustains life. This is the biological need. “But man shall not live by bread alone.” He also needs nourishment for his mind. The baby in the picture Among the corns seems to be empathetic for other children. So in spite of having plenty of food scattered around him, he cannot enjoy eating. His mind is perhaps haunting for other children who might be starving for food. This makes him unhappy and he cannot get the pleasure of eating although there is no dearth of food. Abundance for a selected few cannot make the society happy that rocks the mind of the child as well as the sensitive soul of the great artist Andreou.
A true artist can freely wander in different arena of art, be it portrait or candid or purely creative form like a still life. Still life is a particular genre of visual art, where the artist creates the whole set up by himself with the help of some inanimate objects according to his choice and imagination. In his artistic pursuit Andreou proves his excellence of creativity through his picture White Harmony, where he plays with a simple but mystic display of colour and light. While in his other pictures one can find varied display of rich colours here one finds the richness of simplicity using soft light, soft colour and soft focusing. This not only proves the great mastery of the great artist Andreou over his perception of colour harmony but also his capability of using the right technique to bring out the essence of the theme and aesthetics.
His portfolio Hercules for which he was awarded Master distinction ISF Level-2 is a wonderful cohesive set of surrealistic photography created by computer manipulation simply by using dolls in one layer and blurred background on other layers to create fantasy and dream. Injustices, oppression, neglect, inequality in the society have always bothered him. The simple scene of tender love would expose him to a new sense of human life. What he has always tried to propagate is love, peace and friendship through his artistic skills. “FIAP is my heart forever” is the theme song of FIAP composed by him. In the midst of this great pandemic, when our normal life have come to a scratching halt and we struggle to fight the disease which have already claimed more than eight lack lives, with no medicine in hand and no vaccine in near sight, we once again shall have to fall back upon fine arts to weather this trying time. We realise that to defeat the virus, we shall have to fight as one and fine arts has the power to unite people from across the globe. Professor Andreas has written another song which he named “SINGING TO WIN THE VIRUS – FIGHT TO WIN CORONA VIRUS”. The song has been sung and played by Constantinos Timinis, who has also made a video on the song. Prof Andreou has dedicated the song to FIAP President Mr. Riccardo Bussi and Mrs. Joanne Stolte, the FIAP Liaison Officer for USA. FIAP has recognised this as their official song in the battle against COVID 19. The song reflects his sensitive mind and inspires us to unite through photography and propagate noble values, forgetting our differences in our fight to defeat the virus.
Prof. Andreas has also collaborated with other institutions and writers, not only with the aim of promoting world photography but, with the promotion of important national issues at the same time. One such poetic-photographic collaboration is that with the renowned and award-winning well-known poet R. Ioannidou Stavrou, who enriches the artist’s work with her poems. In addition to his close collaboration with the above poet, he has also collaborated with various organizations in the field of artistic photography. A photo of his has been posted on the cover in an anthology, published by the Department of Forests, on the subject of forests. He was also a contributor to the magazine “Psychic Vibrations”. An article about Andreas L. Andreou was presented in the book “Studies-Essays-Articles” by George I. Kallegia, Dodoni ’99. He has been distinguished in Pancyprian, Panhellenic and other local and International competitions from which he won important awards but the culmination of his success was the GRAND PRIX EUROPE in Italy, where his photographs were considered extremely beautiful and interesting. One of his photographs was accepted for permanent exhibition at the Museum of Photography in BRESCIA, Italy. For this success he was awarded a special medal and diploma.
Prof. Andreas is a humanist to the core and an institution in himself excelling as a teacher, a researcher, an administrator, an organizer, a propagator and an artist. He was adjudged as the best Professor-in-Photography by Silk Road Youth Photo competition in China, 2019. He is associated with many apex photographic bodies of the world – Chairman of PESGSPC, Vice President of Cyprus Photographic Society, representative of Cyprus and ambassador of love, peace and friendship in the World Photography Organization Image Sans Frontiere.
It will be an injustice if I do not highlight about his honours and awards. Most of the Salon photographers are well aware of that. The list is endless so I am not mentioning all. He has been bestowed with honours from many world bodies of which EFIAP/diamond3, Hon. EFIAP, Triple Master (Phenix ISF-Hercules ISF-Dauphin ISF) the only one recipient since 2015, RISF10 are worth mentioning.
Our organisation, Photographic Association of Dum Dum also conferred him Honarary Fellowship of PAD (Hon. FPAD) in 2017. He is recipient of 684 international awards with more than 15,000 acceptances. I sincerely congratulate my friend dear Professor Andreas and salute him. Let God bless him to contribute more for the cause of world Photography. May photography go a long way to bring peace, prosperity, tranquillity and foster international fraternity.
2021 April: Page 34, WPAI Newsletter
Mathematical Photography: A Creative Pursuit
“Jatha Shikha Mmayuranang Naganang Manayo Jatha
Tad Bat Vedanga Sastranang Ganitang Murdhani Sthitam”.
From Vedanga Jyotisha
(Like the crest of the peacock, like the gem of the snake so is Mathematics at the head of all knowledge)
Introduction
Since the dawn of civilization man has been interested in the mystery of creativity. His pleasure in aesthetics has inspired him to recreate the beauty of this wonderful world through intuition and imagination. Man has used various tools in a bid to create objects of art; be it the pen of the writer, the brush of the painter, the chisel of the sculptor or more recently including the camera of the photographer. In my opinion photography, in spite of being the youngest of all visual arts, has emerged as the most powerful medium of creative satisfaction. Technological innovations in recent years have further revolutionised the process. Pictorialists in their creative pursuits are often at the forefront of using different modern tools and techniques.
Mathematical Photography
Mathematical photography is the term I have given to a creative process combining both mathematics and photography, where one creates artistic photography with the aid of Mathematics. Here both the journey and the destination are fascinating. Photography is a scientific process of sketching with the help of light. Photography, which was earlier a combination of Physics and Chemistry is at present an amalgamation of Physics and Digital Technology. Interestingly, the Physical, Chemical and presently the Digital principles of photography are all dependent on Mathematics. Particularly, digital photography which rests on binary digits 0 and 1 and is based on intricate mathematics; starting from Pixel matrix forming the image of the subject to complicated mathematical functions used in Digital editing. Moreover, at every stage of photography, whether analogue or digital, calculation of exposure, guide number (flash photography), intensity of illumination, adjustment of focus, image size (magnification), DOF, angle of view, perspective, f/number, shutter speed, preparation of developer maintaining the ratio of chemicals etc., need to use mathematical formulae for efficient performance. Thus the mechanics of photography cannot be devoid of mathematics. The canons of artistic composition, like the rule of thirds and the golden points, the Golden spiral, the Fibonacci Spiral or the divine proportion 1:1.618 (“PHI”) or Pi are all based on geometry. Artists across ages have used geometrical shapes to make their creations aesthetically pleasing. Photographers also deliberately make use of such shapes either physically (actually visible in the picture) or virtually (conceived with imaginary lines) to make their works stand out.
Some Other Comments
Mathematics is everywhere in nature. For example, the path traced by the planet Venus every eight years, is a perfect pentacle. In my opinion, probably the best creation in nature is the human being. The anatomical structure of a human is an illustration of mathematics in form and function. Great artists like Leonardo da Vinci, who was also a polymath, have often been inspired to create the perfect human form in their works. His famous sketch the ‘Vitruvian Man’ set out very specific mathematical proportions. This principle was also followed by another master – Michelangelo – in his creations, particularly in the statues of David and Moses. In music, Beethoven also applied mathematical rules while composing his fifth symphony. The intellectual relationship between mathematics, music and art can be deduced in the works of many a great artist. The names of Iannis Xenakis, Wassiliy Kandinsky and Arnold Schoenberg are worth mentioning in this respect. The correlation between art and mathematics can be drawn, firstly, from the works of Iannis Xenakis, the Greek composer, architect and mathematician, who used computer programmes to compose music based on mathematical probability systems, and secondly from the paintings of Wassiliy Kandinsky, the famous Russian abstract painter. In fact, Xenakis corresponded mathematical models to music and Kandinsky to frequencies of colours; something logical since both music tones and colours can be analysed by or transcribed to mathematical formulae. Kandinsky found parallel lines between Austrian composer and painter Arnold Schoenberg’s serial and atonal music and his own paintings. After having attended a Schoenberg concert he tried to sketch the performance. His final painting “Impression III (Concert)” fused colour and sound in a synaesthetic experience that marked their collaboration in the field. The pyramids of Egypt are a perfect example of geometry, mathematics again! The keystone of an archway of a church or other old architectures carry the weight of the whole thing, which is polyhedron in shape.
Towards My Creations
The body of work created by the author makes wide use of various mathematical formulae viz. Algebraic and Trigonometric functions, rippling, normal distribution, complex numbers, fractals, Voronoi diagram, TSP (Travelling Salesman Problems) etc. with different algorithms using various computer languages and software like C++, Matlab, Apophysis, Python, Daz3D, Stippling Gen, etc. Such programs were used for generating various shapes and patterns. The human figures were mostly generated using Daz3D. Finally, Photoshop was used to combine the images taken with the camera and the shapes generated digitally to produce what I call “mathematical photography” so that it becomes thematically and aesthetically pleasing. Some candid shots from Greece, France and Italy and few others from the old stock chiefly constitute the photographic elements. In some cases the fascinating Photoshop filter for polar to Cartesian transformation or vice versa have been used for creating odd and humoristic visuals.
Methodology and Classification of My Works
Earlier, in my two solo exhibitions on Graphic Art and Digital art, held in 2010 and 2013 respectively, extensive use of C++ language was made to create most of the pictures. Matlab and Daz3D were also applied in some cases. The present creations use the same software, mostly Matlab. In spite of pre-visualisation of the final image a lot of trial and error was involved, as it is impossible to conceive the end result that the software produces. Various mathematical shapes and patterns, viz. multiple circles, rectangles, triangles, diamonds, spheres, ellipsoid, etc, have been generated either by writing new programs or by changing parameters and number of iterations of the inbuilt programme for Voronoi diagram and other available programs. Apart from programs mentioned earlier, Apophysis has been used to generate enormous random fractals, which were then changed as per the aesthetic demands of the pictures. A TSP (Travelling Salesman Problem) programme developed by my students Dr. Ammlan Ghosh, Mrs. Adrija Bhattacharyya and Mr Bidyut Gupta under my guidance has also been widely used. Another freely available software calculating Voronoi diagram, viz. Stipple gen2, has been used to create dots and circles for an interesting representation of the picture, enhancing the aesthetic value.
Various types of backgrounds using a lot of mathematical calculations have been created for the exhibited pictures.
The work can be classified into four categories as follows:
1. Initially, various mathematical patterns, shapes and forms were randomly generated using various techniques as mentioned earlier. From these patterns, forms and shapes, those resembling the known elements of this mundane world were selected and then combined with the camera images to create images that are thematically meaningful and aesthetically pleasing. This was followed by Digital editing with computer manipulations following SEA (Selection, Elimination & Addition) rule of ART for the final image. P1 is an example of Voronoi; P2 is an example of Fractals and P3 is an example of Rippling.
2. At the next stage, a few regular geometric shapes were drawn, which were combined with camera shots to enhance the overall composition and beauty of the pictures. Some trials were needed to determine the thickness, dimension and number of lines of the curves according to the feature of the subject depending on the available space. Then such forms were combined with the previsualised images with a suitable background to convey the meaningful thoughts. P4, 5,6,7,8,9,10 are a few examples of this category termed as Mathematical Curves.
3. The third category, TSP (Travelling Salesman Problem) and Stippling, are totally different but interesting. The application of TSP in the field of photography has been available for quite some time. Different continuous lines used in my mathematical photography were generated using a program developed by myself and my students, as stated earlier. Variances can be made in the number of “City Centres” (see TSP explanation in Appendix), line-width, line-style and colours. This too involved a number of trials by varying parameters to find out the best visual effect. A few fantastic continuous outlines were generated and then edited and combined with a suitable background and the original image, or part thereof, with Photoshop. P11,12,13 are a few examples of Mathematical Photography using TSP. For creating dots and circles, Stippling Gen2 was used. Using the software one can produce a TSP path and Stipples but here one’s flexibility is limited as there are very few options to manipulate. However, pictures like Shanti (P14) and Happy moments (P15) were created using the tool.
4. The fourth category includes those images which themselves contain mathematical shapes in the pictures and/or those which could not be included into the above categories but have potential to get converted to mathematical photography by marginal digital manipulation and utilisation of appropriate background already generated. P 16-20 are a few examples.
Conclusion
Mathematics plays a very vital role in every sphere of our life and so does art, of which photography is one of the media. The profound relationship between the two can be found in the works of two giants of the fields, namely Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso. Picasso never met Einstein, but he created ‘Les Demoiselles d’ Anignon, which contained the seed of cubism, which was Einstein’s concept of geometrical symmetry in the General Theory of Relativity. It is said that if God and Truth are synonymous, there may be a number of ways through which the destination can be arrived at. Photography as a medium can play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between Mathematics and Art to create masterpieces.
Mathematical Photography as a creative pursuit has a vast potential in creating fantastically wonderful pictorial photography. Let Mathematical Photography flourish with the intuitive and imaginative mind of the artists utilising the various mathematical tools to produce aesthetically pleasing creative images.
Acknowledgements
I express my sincere gratitude to those who directly or indirectly helped me in preparing this article.
Appendix
Terminology used:
Voronoi – a diagram, in mathematics that is a partition of a plane into regions close to each of a given set of objects. In the simplest case, these objects are just finitely many points in the plane (called seeds, sites, or generators).
Fractals – a curve or geometrical figure, each part of which has the same statistical character as the whole. They are useful in modelling structures (such as snowflakes) in which similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales, and in describing partly random or chaotic phenomena such as crystal growth and galaxy formation.
MATLAB is a multi-paradigm numerical computing environment and proprietary programming language developed by MathWorks. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other languages.
Apophysis has many features for creating and editing fractal flames, including an editor which allows one to directly edit the transforms by manipulating triangles, a mutations window, which applies random edits to the triangles, an adjust window, which allows the adjustment of colouring and location of the image
Travelling salesman problem (TSP) asks the following question: “Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, what is the shortest possible route that visits each city exactly once and returns to the origin city?”
Stippling is the creation of a pattern simulating varying degrees of solidity or shading by using small dots. Such a pattern may occur in nature and these effects are frequently emulated by artists.
2020 November: Page 74, FIAP News
Photography for International Understanding and Human Unity
Understanding in singular sense, means acquiring knowledge about animate or inanimate objects. It also means being tolerant and having empathy towards other’s feelings and views. In a pluralistic sense, ‘Understanding’ means mutual bondage or agreement amongst people about something. Photography helps in understanding things, objects, people, events, places etc. quickly, exactly and truly. It plays an honest and important role in this regard. “Unity in Diversity” is the Indian scripture, emphasising the essence of the word “understanding”.According to Ishopanishad (sloka 6)
“Jastu Sarbani Bhutani Atmanebanupashyati
Sarbabhuteshu Chatmang Tatona Bijugupsate”.
(He who thinks everyone is like him and finds himself within everybody. He never hates any one and is not jealous to others.)
International understanding or Internationalism is a sense of world citizenship which enables individuals to have a global perspective instead of narrow local or national viewpoints. Internationalism inspires people “to live together in peace as good neighbours; to take effective measures for the removal of areas of difference and to develop friendly relations among nations”. According to Dr. Walter H.C. Lewis “International Understanding is the ability to observe critically and objectively and appraise the conduct of man everywhere towards one another, irrespective of the nationality or culture to which they may belong.” Oliver Goldsmith, the Irish novelist, playwright and poet says “International Understanding is a feeling that the individual is not only a member of his State, but a member of the World”. In the words of Dr. S Radhakrishnan, “The world once divided by oceans and continent is united physically today but there are still suspicions and misunderstandings. It is essential for us not to live apart but to live together. Understanding one another’s fears and anxieties, aspirationsand thoughts are what we are expected to do. We must not claim a racial extermination, enslavement or segregation but work for racial harmony. We may be German, we may be American, we may be Russian but we are essentially human beings. Let us not overlook fundamental fact that lets us learn to live in a World Community.” Vivekananda advocates the theory of the whole world being a single family. His approach to internationalism is different from the western concept, which is a logical corollary of the modern concept of a sovereign state. Swami Vivekananda’s internationalism stands for a family of self-respecting and self-governing nations united to each other by ties of equality and living at peace and concord with each other. This concept of Vivekananda is based upon the Vedantic principle of universality of self.
Rabindranath Tagore, the great Indian poet and philosopher, who himself was an institution of International Understanding, whose life, philosophy, concept of education, religious belief were the epitome of International Understanding, wrote –
“Aapon hote bahir hoye baire dnara
Buker majhe biswaloker pabi shara”
(Step out of yourself, the universe will respond within. These swelling waves will break into a dance within And the soul will be moved)
Sri Ramkrishna Paramhansa, a great Hindu mendicant and an epitome of religious tolerance propagated the philosophy of “Jata Maat, Tato Path”, “as many faiths, so many paths” (of finding God). Technological progress has shrunk our world; made international boundaries redundant and the world is now often regarded as a global village. Communication Technology is a huge boon in building International Understanding, Human Unity and Peace, as it strengthens the ties between individuals and improves their ability to share, learn and interact with each other. Photography plays a pivotal role in communication technology. Photography as a universal language is also contributing to the socio-economic and cultural development of the societies. In this article an attempt has been made to provide a broad outline of the application of various aspects of Photography in different domains. Photography being a universal language can prove to be a mainstay for International fraternity through the platforms of International Photographic Salons, Conferences and other such events. With the astonishing speed and myriad modes of communication possible in today’s world, the barriers between human societies have long been erased and there has been a paradigm shift in human understanding. People have become closer and it has been possible for us to understand ourselves and comprehend our world at large in a more purposeful manner. Photography plays a very significant role in every sphere of our life. Starting from historical lore to scientific research, from underwater to space, from documentary to artistic pursuit and so on, so forth, there is hardly any sphere where photography is not utilised in this modern society. We are using photography in different ways for different reasons and purposes: for recording old memories and various social events, as a witness to history, for research, as a means of livelihood, or as a creative art medium. Language is the mainstay of communication and it makes a conversation possible. Toread a book or novel one must know the language in which it is written. Even a song cannot be properly realised unless the language of the lyrics is known. But for a visual art, or dance, language is not a barrier. Photography has been referred to as a Universal language. Photography is one of the most powerful visual languages which evokes emotion and helps foster mutual understanding amongst people of the world. It is a superb medium for International understanding irrespective of nationality, creed, colours and religions. Documentary Photography which includes shots recording important events or memorable moments, covers almost all aspects and genres viz. Anthropological, Archaeological, Social, Cultural, Religious and Scientific. This kind of photography helps in knowing the various aspects of life, places, events, objects, etc. and thereby promotes human understanding at global levels. Travel Photography promotes tourism, makes people understand different lifestyles and human activities. It provides an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of wonderful nature subjects, which are an integral part of our lives. Through photography it is possible to enjoy the pristine beauty of the splashing water of the roaring sea at the Vivekananda rock temple, the grandeurs of the Himalayas with its colourful hue, the fantastic natural scene at Kailash Manas Sarobar, the charms of the mountain desert at Ladakh, the awe-inspiring depths of the Grand Canyon and the magnificence of the Niagara falls etc. which have attracted and inspired humanity since eternity even without visiting the place. Human beings have always aspired to portray the astounding beauties of nature, through songs, poetry, painting and through photography.
Architectural / Heritage / Monuments / Anthropological / Tribal
Architectural and heritage photography contributes to our understanding of history. Anthropological Photography helps to understand ethnic and tribal groups; their life and customs.
Scientific / News / Photo Journalism
Huge numbers of journals contain an enormous number of photographs capturing a widespectrum of life, flora and fauna, and environment, as well as social, political, cultural and literal events. No doubt these photographs help us to understand various issues regarding people of different countries. Photojournalism / News Photography cater to the need of the updated happenings of the events, incidents and news of the world through photographs. There are many News Agencies and many freelance and professional photojournalists who provide News photographs to foster understanding of happenings amongst people.
Environmental Photography
Environment is the most burning issue of the time and is widely discussed and debated. Environmental Photographs help to create awareness amongst people about global warming, ecological problems, biodiversity, pollution, water crisis, etc. and thereby international understanding of the global environmental situation.
Creative Photography / International Salon
Photography can be a very powerful tool for creative expression. Creative photography principally finds its connoisseurs through salons, both national and international. International salons promote and propagate photography throughout the world and foster international fraternity. Salon is a French word which has long
been used to refer to exhibitions by painters. Now we also use the word salons for a photographic exhibition. It is a wonderful platform for international understanding, providing opportunity to view works of various pictorialists under one roof. Salons help one understand and appreciate the various photographic developments going on throughout the world. Every year around 500 salons recognised by FIAP, and or PSA, are organised which cater for more than 9000 photographers from over 100 countries, who exhibit thousands of works.
Global Meets
Apart from Salons, the International Photographic Conferences, Congress and global meets, organised by different Photographic organisations like FIAP, PSA and PAD here in India etc., also play a vital role in promoting international understanding. Since 1957, every year PSA recognises an accomplished living photographer, whose images have clearly contributed to the advancement of international understanding among people, with the “International Understanding Through Photography (IUTP)” award. Edward Steichen was the first recipient in 1957 and Clyde Butcher in 2019. Mr Butcher was also awarded Photographer Humanitarian of the year in 2005. A Memorandum of Understanding between FIAP and PSA was signed in September 2019 to foster a strong relationship of trust and mutual desire to formulate an agreement to work together for better universal understanding.
Social Network
Social Networking is another startling avenue for global understanding using photographs, owing to an abundance of Mobile & Digital cameras. Now everyone can take snaps and many such images are uploaded to Facebook, Instagram etc. for circulation. However it serves as a means of great communication with others.
United Nations
The UN used to organise a number of photographic competitions on various topics for understanding the gravity of issues like Sustainable Development Goals, Empathy and Service to others, importance of the ocean and festivals, etc. UNESCO, the propagator of International Understanding for Human Unity (IUHU), also regularly conducts
photographic competitions and exhibitions at different places on various themes.
Conclusion
In conclusion, let us hope that photography will go a long way to promote international understanding, fostering international brotherhood through the universal language of photography, understandable by one and all. Let photography bring peace, harmony, happiness and prosperity to the multitude – “Bahujana Hitaya Bahujana Sukhayacha”.
Acknowledgement
I express my sincere gratitude and heartfelt thanks to those who helped me with this article and the photographers who kindly permitted the inclusion of their photos.
2020 August: Page 62, FIAP News
Yet Another Noble Venture by PAD
Life without a camera is inconceivable today. There is hardly any family without a camera. Starting from scientific innovation to historical lore, from space to under water, from documentation to artistic creation, photography is omnipresent. The present society, in a sense, owes its very existence to photography. It is one of the most popular leisure, tourist and cultural pursuits.The Photographic Association of Dum Dum (alias PAD), is an institute per excellence, serving globally for the cause
of photographic development since 1957. Its motto is to promote and propagate photography through different ways and in various capacities viz. organising annual International Salons, International Conferences, conducting photographic courses free of charge, participating in Salons, organising Students’ & Members’ Exhibitions and providing teaching support to many organisations to foster photographic education in India. The inaugural programme of the Seventh Session of the Free Short Term
Course on Digital Photo Editing took place on 8th February, 2020 at Benu Sen Study Centre & Digital Research Unit (DRU) of PAD with the august presence of Dr. Bikas C Sanyal, Legion of Honour, former adviser UNESCO, as Guest in Chief and other dignitaries. It started with felicitating the Guests with flowers and mementos. Mr Mrinal
Banerjee, Chairman, DRU, while welcoming the guests and participants, emphasized that photography has undergone a sea change from a conventional film base to an electronic sensor based digital system and with that, learning digital editing has become mandatory, and to cater for that need, PAD has come forward through its DRU to offer a very compressive course on digital photo editing using software like Photoshop and Lightroom absolutely free of cost. This course is aimed at creating a good foundation for photographers on digital photo editing which will be at par with international standard. It is elaborative, provides detailed insight in the
concept of basic editing and usage of various techniques and their creative application with due stress on practice. He further stated that the course duration will be around 50 standard class hours. He expressed his gratitude to Prof. Biswatosh Sengupta for framing the course, and to the faculties and our beloved Guru Benu Sen. After self-introduction by the participants and faculties, Prof. Biswatosh Sengupta, Jt. Secretary, PAD, mentioned that the emergence of Digital technology has helped significantly with promoting and propagating photography throughout the world. Its advancement has changed the entire scenario and dimension in Photography. A layman seldom bothers about the intricacies of the technology or pictorial quality of a picture, but simply goes on clicking the shutter. But a serious enthusiast can produce beautiful images by creative application of the mind if they have technical knowledge. However beautiful the subject may be, all photographs taken with a digital camera may not be aesthetically pleasing unless they are properly edited. The role of editing in digital photography is similar to the role of cooking food. Today, it is quite common to find fantastic and fascinating pictures, which are products of various types of manipulations with the help of editing software. Thus it is more rational and desirable to go through the basics of digital photography and subsequent editing techniques for producing better pictures and displaying further creativity. Prof. Dipak Chakraborty, former Principal of Dum Dum Motijheel College, and special guest, highly praised the role of PAD in the academic field and wished grand success of the course. This was followed by the blessings of another special guest Smt Priti Sanyal, a noted Travel Writer and poet. Her elegant presence and narration of experiences and expectations from photography kept the audience spellbound. She became emotional when she spoke of an image of the twin tower disaster– the jump of a man from the ninth floor with the hope of saving his life. ‘The Falling Man’ taken by Richard Drew on 9.11 in New York City at World Trade Centre.
After her deliberation, a video blessing from Sarnia, Canada by P. Sen (Dipak), a founding member of PAD, was direct telecasted. He referred to the October 2019 issue of our “IMAGE” in which our successful partnering with Kalyani University, Viswa Bharati, Ramakrishna Mission, Gurudas College, Photographic Society of Murshidabad etc was reported in detail. He said that the course on Digital Photo Editing has three components: selection, elimination and addition. Its purpose is to create Art to fulfil PAD’s mission of promoting pictorial photography. He hoped that this training will essentially enhance the technical and pictorial skills of the participants. He expressed his desire to look forward in the future, when PAD will venture into on-line training and he would be there to participate. Dr. Bikas C. Sanyal was more emphatic on the academic part of the course. He was distinctly pleased by the faculties and requested all the students to take the fullest advantage of their brains. He also pleaded to not misuse the freedom of photo editing. The lurking greed of fame and money should not stand in the path of ethics.
The programme ended with the formal vote of thanks by Prof. Sengupta followed by light refreshments. So let us hope that this course will enrich the participants, and that Photography will go a long way to cultivate knowledge as a means of livelihood and as a medium of creative expression. It will foster international brotherhood as the language of photography is understood by one and all.
ABC of Photography
Photography plays a very significant role in all spheres of life. Starting from scientific innovation to historical lore, from space to under water, from documentation to artistic creation and so on, in every-sphere one can find elegance and application of photography. There is hardly any sphere where photography is not utilised in this modern society. Today, it is a very fascinating subject to one and all. It is one of the most popular leisure and tour pursuits and there are few families without a camera. Owing to abundance of Mobile & Digital cameras, children to older people, everyone can now take snaps. A backdated (2016) Statistical record indicate that about 38 crores of photos are uploaded in a day which is equivalent to 4400 snaps per second. But techniques of photography still remain a mystery to a large section of the people.
The dictionary meaning of ABC is the basic or simplest elements of a subject i.e. the rudiments. Since many of you are practising photography and participating in salons I presume most of you are already aware of the fundamentals of photography; and therefore many of you will be bored if I simply follow only the literal meaning of ABC. Rather I would like to define ABC as acronym in my own fashion and discuss a few concepts in brief, to exchange views. There may be many acronyms made up with ABC which are concerned with Photography but in this article I have dwelt upon only 12 such ABC as the acronym of:
- About Basic Concept
- A firm Better Criteria
- A Beginner’s Choices
- Assert Brilliant Communication
- Attempt Best Candid
- Affix Beneath Colours
- Accentuated Balanced Composition
- Art Behind Camera
- Aesthetics Beauty Creativity
- Application By Computers
- Artist’s Beautiful Creation
- After Bewitching Creation
About Basic Concept
Photography is the science which helps us to get an exact image of what we see through our eyes. The Greek word “Photo” means light and “Graph” means sketch. Thus photography is a scientific process of obtaining a sketch by means of light i.e. a method of obtaining picture by the agency of light.
Mo Tsu, a Chinese scientist and philosopher explained the idea of the formation of an inverted image by light passing through a pinhole in 5th century B.C. The phenomenon that certain substances are sensitive to light, that foliage turns green in light and that some colours get bleached in absence of sunlight were known more than a thousand years back. The science of Photography rests on these two facts. In 1816 Joseph Nicephore Niepce made the first effective synthesis of the optical and chemical principles. He placed the light sensitive material inside the Camera Obscura where the image of the object was formed, to obtain a permanent record. To make a picture one needs a camera to create images and through which one can expose the light-sensitive material i.e. film which is generally silver halide with gelatin suspended on a transparent base.
To make a picture by the photographic process one has to go through several steps which may be classified under two headings viz.
i) making of the Negative and
ii) preparing a Positive from the negative.
From a technical point of view both the processes are more or less the same. In the negative the lighted portion of the object will be depicted as black and the portion in darkness as transparent, the gradation of black varies as the intensity of light reflected from the object varies. This is reverse of what we see and that is why it is called a “Negative”. To obtain the negative we go through several steps viz. exposing the film, development of the exposed film, fixing, washing, drying.
Since everything in photography depends on quantum of light one must be concerned with the estimation of correct exposure which depends on light condition, film speed, aperture, shutter speed, reflecting capacity of the subject, filter factor, guide number, distance, etc. With the progress of Photographic Science and Computer Technology there has been a revolutionary change in the concept and application of Photography. Digital photography is the most recent development in the field of photography changing the whole scenario and dimension in photography. Computer aided photography or photographs taken with the help of Digital camera and then making various types of manipulation with the help of software producing fantastic and fascinating pictures are very common to-day. Pictures are stored as digital files (information of an image in binary data) in a memory card of the camera which is usually downloaded in the computer for editing and printing.
A firm Better Criteria
Choice of subject, angle of view point, framing, proper lighting, depth of field, appropriate selection of lens, differential focusing, choice of suitable filter, correct exposure, perfect development, after treatment, etc. are some of the fundamental criteria for better quality of the picture. To have a good photograph it must be thematically interesting, technically perfect and aesthetically pleasing. A good picture must appeal to viewers. The theme of the picture should be appealing and print quality should be brilliant. In a technically perfect print all the tones in the negative should appear and there must be the full range of tones between black and white. With the variation of exposure and development, the quality of the images (grade of the negative or tone of the positive) is likely to vary. Any departure from the optimum combination leads to deterioration of the quality of the images. The ultimate objective of true photography is to obtain a good quality of print which is only possible when both the image quality of the negative and positive are technically perfect and acceptably good. For betterment, if necessary, dodging, burning, vignetting, retouching may be done to improve the print. It is to be remembered that for a good print the negative should be good. A good negative can only be obtained when both the exposure and the processing are perfect. So, one has to be very careful about these important criteria. In practice, there are many cases when owing to some faults, image quality deteriorates and calls for improvement which may be done to some extent in case of negatives either by intensification or reduction and for prints by choosing appropriate paper grade and manipulating the development. In cases of one step variation on both sides (under exposure & over exposure) there can be nine different effects as follows:
Exposure Development
Over Under Correct
Under Very thin without detail Thin without shadow detail Extreme contrast
Correct Thin but with detail Correct Contrast
In case of Digital photography, the laymen do not care much about the intricacies of the technology, but simply go on clicking , mostly in the auto-mode without bothering about the quality or possibility of further enhancement of the pictorial quality of what they shoot. But those who are little concerned may produce beautiful pictures simply by proper editing and application of the creative mind which is inherent to every one. It is to be remembered that one may capture beautiful shots in a digital camera but unless those are properly edited (post operation), those may not be so enchanting. It is exactly like a case for producing food. There may be high quality of ingredients (vegetables, meat, fish, etc) but unless it is cooked with proper recipes the ultimate food may not be so palatable. The role of editing in digital photography is similar to the role of cooking in food making. Therefore, one should be concerned about digital editing using software like Photoshop, Light room, etc.
A Beginners’ Choices
Even though there is no hard and fast rule and it is to some extent foolish thinking, however for the sake of convenience a beginner may choose a moderate camera which is easy to handle i.e technically simple without much complications and economic. One should choose normal film of speed (100 ASA/21DIN for film) or 100-400 ISO (for Digital) so that grains or noises are less. Preferably use shutter speed between 1/50 – 1/200 sec to capture motion , aperture between f/8-f/16 to have moderate depth of field and bright or cloudy bright light condition as well as a short zoom to take both close and distant objects.
Assert Brilliant Communication
Any form of Art is nothing but a visual communication. One of the functions of art is to express feeling and thereby to communicate with the connoisseurs and photography is no exception. In photography a photographer tries to communicate his feelings and visual realisations through his pictures. How best an individual can reach to his viewers and convey his views entirely depends on his communication skills i.e. his ability to represent something in a manner that reveals something original – a unique and private vision of the world. The more brilliant and unique it is, the more enjoyable the work of art is. Art is a creative process. It originates in a sensitive soul which cannot help but express and communicate to the others what it has seen, heard and felt.
Art is born in a soul which is endowed withkeen sensitivity. But a keen sensitivity alone is of no avail in the making of art. To this must be added an irresistible will to express what one has sensed. The urge for expression is purely instinctive, almost unconscious but the process of communication itself is not. It is a conscious process. The artist selects how much to tell, how much to eliminate and how much to add if necessary, for idealised form of the artist for beauty and harmony. The brilliant mode of communication is unique and renders the subject matter of communication exceedingly absorbing. Therefore one must opt how best one can communicate his feelings through the elements within the picture space.
Attempt Best Candid
Most of the amateurs are snap shooters; they simply click and rest is done by others. But amongst the serious photographers there are many snap-shooters who click without the knowledge of the subject, to produce good candid shots. The snap shooting of human beings or animals in some natural activity in normal environment without premeditated arrangement or usually without the subject being aware that they are being photographed is commonly known as candid shots. The word “candid” is used to mean unposed and informal. For best candid one should click at the opportune moment that is commonly called the ”decisive moment” according to famous photojournalist Henri Cartier Bresson. One has to act cleverly and skilfully to capture the unposed action without the notice of the subject so that the actual mood of the subject and the atmosphere of the surrounding become normal. Wonderful memorable moments can be captured through candid photography.
Accentuated Balanced Composition
Except a few patterns or abstract forms every picture should have some primary interest, some dominant object around which everything else is built, generally referred to as a centre of interest. Every line, every path, and every shape and mass within the picture area should lead the eye towards the centre of interest.
Composition is the technique of arranging the elements of a photograph in such a manner that they can make the picture a beauty. Composition is referred as the “grammar” or “design” or “language of vision”. It means the ways of expressing visual ideas through pictures. Visual expression of a subject needs to arrange and explore its shape; colour is the strongest way to frame the whole picture into a powerful visual statement. Accentuation, balance & symmetry, contrast, harmony, repetition, radiation, curvature, etc. are the cannons of composition. Good composition is the proper synthesis of unity, harmony and balance in the picture. Proper placement of right subjects and details make a composition, beautiful. Composition in a photograph can be controlled by tone (to suggest the relative visual brightness of the subject), sharpness (differential focussing), contrast (feature of opposite or different characters to lend variety and avoid monotony), scale (differential of massiveness, vastness and proportionality between different objects), depth, texture etc.
Affix Beneath Colours
Ruskin said “All men, completely organized and justly tempered, enjoy colour; it is meant for the perpetual comfort and delight of the human heart”. Tone and Colour play vital role in Photography. One may consider colours as visual languages to convey the emotional responses of the subject matter. Different colours convey different meanings and also the same colour may have other interpretations in different environment or different context or culture. Each colour has positive and negative meanings. Thus, while creating an artistic photograph one must consciously use colours as a symbolic representation to convey one’s thoughts. Most of you are well concerned about the colours used in our traffic signal. Red for stop, green for move and Yellow to get ready. But here we may have different connotations in photography. The notional idea of the general meanings or symbolic representations of the few colours are mentioned in brief for the convenience of the readers.
Red symbolizes excitement and high energy levels. Positively Red connotes love, passion, and excitement, while negativity associated with red are danger, anger and aggression. Red is the colour of extremes. It’s the colour of passion, love, seduction, violence, danger, anger, and adventure. Our prehistoric ancestors saw red as the colour of fire and blood – energy and primal life forces. Pink is a lighter version of red. Pink symbolizes youth, femininity, love and romance, caring, tenderness, acceptance and calm. Orange is a colour that autumn and the harvest season represent. Bright orange is seen as happy, childlike and whimsical. Orange symbolises energy, balance, enthusiasm, warmth, vibrant, expansive, flamboyant, demanding of attention. Yellow is the colour of sunshine, light, and warmth. On the positive side, it symbolizes optimism, joy, and wisdom. Too much yellow can express cowardice, jealousy, and deceit. A typical stereotype of cowardice is a yellow stripe running down ones back. Yellow signifies joy, happiness, betrayal, optimism, idealism, imagination, hope, sunshine, summer, gold, philosophy, dishonesty, cowardice, jealousy, covetousness, deceit, illness, hazard and friendship. Brown is the colour of the earth. Brown brings to mind visions of hearth and home. Brown signifies earth, stability, hearth, home, outdoors, reliability, endurance, simplicity, and comfort. Blue is the colour of water and the sky. The positive connotations of blue are loyalty, justice, knowledge, and intelligence. The negative associations are coldness, apathy, and depression. Green conveys nature. People often think of grass and foliage when asked what the colour green symbolizes. Green also represents money. Banks will often use the colour green in their logos. The negative connotations of the colour green are greed and envy and thus the phrase “green with envy” has evolved. Green represent Nature, environment, health, good luck, renewal, youth, spring, generosity, fertility, jealousy, service, inexperience, envy, misfortune, vigor. Purple has been associated with royalty since ancient times. The colour purple symbolizes elegance, spirituality, mystery, nobility, ceremony, transformation, wisdom, enlightenment, cruelty, honour, arrogance, mourning, temperance. White conveys purity and cleanliness. Brides in the Western Hemisphere wear white wedding dresses to symbolize their innocence and purity. White also expresses softness, simplicity, and truth, reverence, purity, birth, simplicity, cleanliness, peace, humility, precision, innocence, youth, winter, snow, good, sterility, marriage (Western cultures), death (Eastern cultures), cold, clinical. Black is the colour of power, sophistication, and elegance. Hence the term “black tie affair”. Of course, there is also a negative connotation to the colour black. It can be used to symbolize fear, negativity, and evil. “A black soul” is a term for an evil human being. Black: Power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear, evil, unhappiness, depth, style. The simplest explanation of the function of colour in a picture is enhancement of the verisimilitude of the picture. This use of colour can be called ‘Natural’. Apart from this natural use of colour, we can distinguish three other modes, which may be called ‘the Heraldic’, ‘the Harmonic’ and ‘the Pure’. The heraldic use of colour is perhaps the most primitive and in this form the colour is used for its symbolic significance.
A child, if he has a free choice of colour will always print the tree green and the sky blue, though a tree can be brown and sky grey. In harmonic mode the artist look at his objects in relation to the light and shadow and then he determines the tone value or relative intensity which the colours have with the general lighting of the picture. This involves, in effect regulating the colours to conform to a restricted scale. The dominant tone of the picture is determined and all other colours are scaled up or down to a restricted distance from the dominant colour. In the pure mode, the colour is used for its own sake. The colours are taken in their purest intensity and a pattern is built up in contrasts of relative intensity and relative area. The purpose being decorative, verisimilitude is secondary. Colour is thus reduced to its most sensual appeal.
Art Behind Camera
The derivative meaning of Art is Skill or Device. Accordingly, such acts as riding, hunting, and swimming in earlier days were termed Art. But with the passage of time, concept of Art has acquired a deeper meaning. There exists an inherent urge to communicate what one has seen or visualized and every sensitive human soul expresses and shares his feeling about the world around him with others through any medium – from the time of pre-history to recent time; be it painting, sculpture or photography, performing art or writing. As per great Greek philosopher Aristotle, Art is the idealized form of artist. It means that art should not be as it is in the nature but it should be how an artist sees it, knows it or perceives it. It should be a modified form of nature being the configuration of artist’s mind. Great Indian Poet Rabindranath Tagore said that “Art is ‘Maya’”. The concept of ‘Maya’ is given by great Sankaracharyay. He said that ‘Maya’ is beyond explanation, ’Anirbachaniya’.
I personally consider Art as acronym of Absolutely Relative Thought. However, we consider Art as a creative process. It originates in a sensitive human soul which cannot help communicating to others what has been seen, heard and felt. The Artist selects a subject, eliminates from it what he considers redundant and adds to it what he feels should be essential to complete a meaning, a picture. When the job is complete the subject acquires a new look, a new meaning and, last but not least, a beauty which has so long remained unnoticed. The common place becomes uncommon because it has taken up the hue. Of the artist’s mind the artist has created something new and beautiful from what already exists not by coping it, not by reproducing it but by rearranging it and by holding it in a new perspective. Essentially, therefore, Art is a process of re-creation, distinguished from reproduction, which has a spiritual rather than material end in view.
The object of art is to depict beauty. According to Rabindranath, “when we talk of aesthetics in relation to arts, we must know that it is not about beauty in its ordinary meaning but in that deeper meaning which a poet has expressed in his utterance: truth is beauty, beauty truth”. The Artist, in any medium uses canon of composition – be it occidental or oriental. The focal point of every artist is to express Western BEAUTY or Eastern RASA by the successful application of six canons or Saranga (Six limbs of Art).
“Rupabheda Pramanani Bhava Lavanya Yojonam, Sadrisyam Varnikabhangamiti Chitram Sadangakam” .
This couplet was quoted by Yasodhra commenting on Vatsayan’s Kamasutra (1.3.15).
According to this sloka the six limbs of art are as follows:
Rupabheda – The knowledge of appearance
Pramanani – Correct perception, feature and structure
Bhava – Action of feeling on form
Lavanya – Infusion of grace, artistic representation
Sadrisyam – Similitude
Varnikabhanga – Artistic manner of using brush and color
Whatever may be the medium, ultimate goal of any Art is to enjoy sublime pleasure by the creator and to provide aesthetic delight (Rasa) to the viewers. Rasa comes out of a harmonious rendering of feeling (Bhaba) and the form (Rupa). Rupa is the physical reality and Bhaba enlivens it. Nine Rasas with corresponding Bhabhas are as follows:
Sringara (Erotic, Attractiveness)
Hasya (Laughter, Mirth)
Karuna (Compassion, Pathetic)
Roudra (Fury, Anger)
Vira (Heroic)
Bhayanaka (Horror, Terror)
Bibhatsa (Disgust, Odious)
Adbhuta (Wonder, Astonishment)
Santa (Tranquility, Calmness).
Now-a-days Photography is playing a very vital role as a medium of creative expression. It is the youngest child of Art. It is the latest and most powerful medium of Art now available to Artists. That is why Pablo Picasso after viewing an exhibition of Photographic Art remarked “Photography has killed us, “twenty first century is for you”. Many photo artists are using the tools of photography for creating beautiful images as masterpiece of any form of art. Creative Photography mainly concerns with Art. Particular branch of photography which deals with Art, or Art for which photography is the medium is called Pictorial Photography. Pictorial has been chosen as synonym of Art. I define Pictorial as acronym of Photographer’s Intentional Creative Thought Of RealisationInArtistic Line.
Pictorialism is a method of photographic representation which aims primarily at Aesthetic, Emotional and Intellectual effects. Pictorialism can be defined as aform of self expression using the tools of photography, e.g. Camera, LSM, Chemicals etc., with the object of creating images and enjoying both the process and the product. “Thus a Pictorial Photographer recreates the objects in his own way in his pictures. Tones and composition help build up the appeal which the subject aroused in him. Ultimately when the job is complete it gives us a photograph the beauty of which is traceable as much to the subject matter as to the creative personality of the photographer himself. The camera is used not to record a subject in its physical form but used as a pawn in the game to finally make a picture.
Aesthetics Beauty Creativity
Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensory-emotional values, sometimes called judgment of sentiment and taste. More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as ‘critical reflection on art, culture and nature.’ Aesthetics is a sub discipline of axiology, a branch of philosophy, and is closely associated with the philosophy of art. Aesthetic studies are new ways of seeing and of perceiving the world. The term aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the perception of beauty. An artist’s aesthetic approach to life is intuitive and multi-dimensional and is born out of itself. On the other hand the viewers are on the receiving end. As art is the source of one of the most sublime spiritual experiences i.e. aesthetic delights; aesthetics is essential for developing an artistic perception as well as an eye for truly appreciating a work of art. Beauty is the quality that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is associated with such properties as harmony of form or color, excellence of artistry, truthfulness and originality. According to Mr. J Reylond ‘Art has beauty for its objects’. Most of the painters and photographers would agree that they are in pursuit of beauty even though they may not all appreciate equally an object as beauty. Yet beauty is an inseparable aspect from art as art cannot be avoid of beauty. According to the law of beauty, any artistic creation formulates, conforms and perfects the result of human perception of the world.
Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is created. It is also defined as the process of producing something original and worthwhile i.e. characterized by originality and expressiveness and imagination. Creative Photography is nothing but to see the world in a different way and to present the mundane elements in the picture space in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Creative technique aims to show how many familiar subjects can be transformed by a fresh imaginative approach or by a new way of looking at an image with innovative and intuitive mind through manipulation and techniques. I define Creativity as an acronym of Creator’s Representation (of) Emotional Aesthetic Transcendental Intellectual Visualisation Innovatically Tranformed (to a) Yum/Yarn.
Application by Computer
Computer technology has permeated every sphere of human life. In the field of photography its application is vast. Automatic colour processing, sending images through the telecommunication net work digital photography and so on are a few to name. Here I will mention only creative application by computer. Computer is used as a tool to manipulate the image to recreate an artistic form with the creative ideas and visualisation of the artistic mind of the photographer to enjoy the process and the product. Computer offers a set of powerful tools most of which were earlier unthinkable to a photo artist, to create his masterpieces with the photographic techniques known to them or through dark room gimmicks. Several software (computer programmes) are available now-a-days for such purposes. They are Colour Studio Super print, PC Paintbrush, Level photo print, Corel Draw, Adobe Photoshop. Corel Draw is one of the fine graphic packages available in the market. It provides a very integrated and interesting effect and easy to use interface with all tools readily available on the desktop. Corel photo print allows one to produce photorealistic images, it combines impressive painting tools with powerful making, and object handling, photo retouching and colour correction capabilities, image and special effect filters are available to add subtle enhancement or dramatic impact to new images. Software Adobe Photoshop is the most fascinating one especially to photographers. It offers unlimited scope for creative photography on digital platform. The photograph we intend to manipulate is scanned with the aid of one gadget known as scanner or uploaded from digital camera. This photograph in question undergoes addition (called paste), elimination (cut), retouching (editing) and other desired effects with the help of a set of powerful hardware and software and finally output is taken into colour printer or film recorder directly from the computer. The magic starts when one begins to manipulate his images according to his creative thought of realisation to produce a pictorial photograph. Photoshop provides multiple layering system and unlimited colour choice which can literally create wonders in creative photography. The most versatile range of special effect filters include Posterize, Solarise, Polar Coordinates, Blur, Crystallize, Emboss, Twist and Twirl, Glass texture, Lens Flare, Lighting Effects, etc. to name a few. Numerous fascinating effects, variations in distortion and perspectives, combination of images and manipulation in composition are possible, which help in making fantastic surrealistic and impressionistic picture and simple montages; and the only limit is one’s perception, imagination and aesthetic visualisation. Of course manipulation systems are not the only solutions in making art photography and only software can never replace the creativity which is in fact an inborn faculty matured through practice and knowledge. A great camera will never guarantee master photograph; similarly, don’t assume that a computer with software and gadget will make one master artist. Computer merely act as an aid to produce a hard copy of the creative image called pictorial photography provided it fulfills the minimum criteria to consider it as a pictorial one. Software may help in experimenting with numerous techniques and to produce wonderful pictures but it is the artist behind the computer who will decide what to create, which techniques to apply and how far to go to create a pictorial photograph. It is hoped that the photographers with their imaginative mind will utilise the techniques, not simply to
show gimmicks but to produce masterpieces of high art value.
Artist’s Beautiful Creation
There are millions of subjects available to the photo-artists for beautiful creation. These are landscape, nature study, candid shot, portrait, figure study, still life, and experimental work. An artist with sound technical knowledge and aesthetic imagination using various photographic tools and gadgets can produce wonderful pictures of superb quality.
After Bewitching Creation
After beautiful creations one should share his works with others either by organising solo or group exhibition or by participating in salons held in different parts of the world. It is of no use to keep his creation under lock and key. Unless it is being appreciated or criticised by others one cannot asses the aesthetic value of his pictures. A beautiful picture should purge emotions of and provide pleasure to the spectators. Whether one’s creation is really worth valid or not, may partially be judged by salon acceptance. Even though it is a relative assessment, and the juries have individual choices and likings, it is not a matter to ignore or brush aside since it is assessed by different experts hailing from diversified socio-cultural outlooks. Salon as you know is a French word. Earlier it was exhibition of the Painters, now-a-days we consider National and International exhibition of Photo Art providing opportunity to view works of various pictorialists under one roof to be a Salon. In a salon several thousand works are submitted and only a few are accepted for display selected by the jury. Therefore submission of works in a number of salons helps one to understand the aesthetic value of the work to a great extent. Moreover it helps to attend the eligibility criteria for different Honours & distinctions of FIAP, PSA etc.
Conclusion
Before I conclude, let us hope that Photography will go a long way to cultivate knowledge and as a medium of creative expression. It will foster international brotherhood through the universal language of photography understandable by one and all.
Acknowledgement
I express my sincere gratitude and heartfelt thanks to those whose pictures I have included in this article for academic purpose. I am also thankful to Mr. Nicos Karanikis, Director FIAP Media Relations Service for including my paper in FIAP NEWS.
2019 December: Page 108, FIAP News
আলোকচিত্রের ভাষা
“নানা ভাষা, নানা মত, নানা পরিধান
বিবিধের মাঝে দেখো মিলন মহান ”
ভাষা আমাদের কথোপকথন, ভাবপ্রকাশ এবং ভাববিনিময়ের প্রধান সোপান বা মাধ্যম। কথিত আছে একসময় পৃথিবীতে প্রায় ৬০০০ ভাষাভাষী লোক ছিল। এখন প্রায় ৩৫০০ ভাষাভাষী লোক আছে। তাদের কেউ কেউ একাধিক ভাষা জানে। আমরা সকলেই আমাদের ভাষার বিষয়ে বিশেষভাবে স্পর্শকাতর। কেউ কেউ হয়ত বা উদার। কথায় বলে মাতৃভাষা মাতৃদুগ্ধ-সম। বহু দেশ বা জাতি তাদের মাতৃভাষাকে বিশেষভাবে প্রাধান্য দেয়। বাংলাদেশের ভাষা আন্দোলন পৃথিবীর ইতিহাসে স্থান করে নিয়েছে । বিশ্বজুড়ে ২১শে ফেব্রুয়ারী আন্তর্জাতিক মাতৃভাষা দিবস হিসাবে পালিত হয়। আমরা কাজের প্রয়োজনে অনেকেই একাধিক ভাষা ব্যবহার করি। বর্তমানে স্কুলের পাঠ্যক্রমে একাধিক ভাষা শিখতে হয়। ভাষার নিরিখে পৃথিবীতে সবচেয়ে কথিত হল চিনা (১৪.১%),স্পানিশ (৫.৮৫%),ইংরাজী (৫.৫২%), হিন্দি (৪.৪%) ও বাংলা (৩.০৫% ) ভাষা। আমাদের মাতৃভাষা বাংলা। বাংলাদেশ ও ভারতের পশ্চিমবঙ্গে বাংলাভাষা বিশেষভাবে ব্যবহার হয়। পাঠ্যপুস্তক ও গল্পের বই পড়তে হলে অবশ্যই যে ভাষায় তা লেখা তা জানা দরকার। সেক্সপীয়ারের রচনার রস আস্বাদনের জন্য ইংরাজী ভাষা জানা যেমন দরকার তেমনি রবীন্দ্র সাহিত্যের জন্য বাংলা এবং বেদ-উপনিষদের সঠিক উপলব্ধির জন্য সংস্কৃত জানা একান্ত প্রয়োজন। সংগীতের জন্যও অনেক সময় ভাষা না জানলে সম্যক উপলব্ধি সম্ভব নয়। কিন্তু দৃশ্যশিল্প বা নৃত্যের ক্ষেত্রে ভাষা কোন বাধা নয় । সকল ভাষাভাষীর কাছেই তা সমান ভাবে উপভোগ্য। তাই চিত্রশিল্প কিংবা আলোকচিত্র ( যা অবলোকন চিত্রকলা ) সকলের কাছেই সমান ভাবেই সমাদৃত। এ ক্ষেত্রে উপভোক্তা কোন ভাষাভাষীর তা কোন বিষয় নয়। তাই যে কোন দেশের যে কোন ভাষাভাষী লোকের কাছেই পৃথিবীব্যাপী আলোকচিত্র সমান ভাবে আকর্ষণীয়। ভাষার প্রতিটি বর্ণই এক একটি ছবি। একসময় ভাষা ছিল কথ্যরুপেই সীমাবদ্ধ, দৃশ্যরূপ দিয়ে লিপি তাকে লেখা আর পড়ার সামগ্রী করে তুলল। এদিক থেকে দেখতে গেলে লিপি মাত্রই ছবি , আর এই ছবি আঁকার পিছনে কাজ করছে মানুষের প্রতিক্রিয়া। আর বিমুর্ততার আকাঙ্ক্ষা । ভাষা ছবি নির্ভর। কিন্তু ছবি ভাষা নির্ভর নয়। তাই আলোকচিত্রকে বিশ্বজনীন ও সর্বজনীন ভাষা বলা হয়। এই লেখাতে আলোকচিত্রশিল্পের ভাষা সম্বন্ধীয় কিছু বিষয় নিয়ে আলোচনা করবো।
নবারুণ পত্রিকার আগের দুটো সংখ্যায় আলোকচিত্রের বিভিন্ন বিষয় নিয়ে কিছু আলোচনা করেছি তবুও পাঠকদের সুবিধার জন্য বিশেষত নতুনদের জন্য এই অনুচ্ছেদে দুচারটি কথার পুনরাবৃত্তি করছি। আমরা যা দেখি, বিজ্ঞানসম্মত ভাবে আলোর দ্বারা হুবহু তার প্রতিকৃতি আঁকাই হল ফোটোগ্রাফি বা আলোকচিত্র। গ্রীক ভাষায় ‘ফোটো’র অর্থ আলো ও ‘গ্রাফি’ অর্থাৎ আঁকা। আমরা বিভিন্ন কারনে, বিভিন্ন ভাবে আলোকচিত্রের ব্যবহার করে চলেছি – কেউ শুধু স্মৃতি ধরে রাখার জন্য, কেউ ইতিহাসের সাক্ষী হিসাবে, কেউ বা বিভিন্ন গবেষণার কাজে, কেউ বিভিন্ন সামাজিক অনুষ্ঠানের রেকর্ড শট হিসাবে, কেউ বা রুজি রোজগারের জন্য, কেউ বা শখে বা সৃজনশীল শিল্পের মাধ্যম হিসাবে। আলোকচিত্রের মাধ্যমে যে শিল্প প্রকাশ পায় তাকেই বলে আলোকচিত্র শিল্প (পিক্টোরিয়াল ফটোগ্রাফি)। এটি আলোকচিত্রের একটি বিশেষ শাখা।
পিক্টোরিয়াল শব্দটি শিল্প সম্মত আলোকচিত্রেরই নামান্তর যেখানে প্রাথমিকভাবে শিল্পীর বুদ্ধিদীপ্ততা নান্দনিক বোধ ও আবেগপ্রবণতা প্রকাশ পায়। সৃষ্ট শিল্পবস্তুটির প্রতি মমতায় ও সৃষ্টির প্রক্রিয়ায় এক অপার্থিব আনন্দে শিল্পীর মন ভরে ওঠে। আর এখানেই আলোকচিত্রের মাধ্যমে শিল্পী তার ভাবকে ছবির ভাষায় প্রকাশ করে। তাই আলোকচিত্রের ভাষা নিয়ে কিছু কথা। আলোকচিত্রের ভাষা মূলত তার বিষয় বস্তু, ফর্ম, প্রতীক ও রঙের উপস্থাপনার উপর নির্ভরশীল। প্রতীকী নিয়ে আলোচনা পরের লেখায় করার ইচ্ছে রইল তবে রঙের ভাষা নিয়ে কিছু আলোচনা করেছি।
পিক্টোরিয়াল ফটোগ্রাফি (আলোকচিত্র শিল্প) ক্যামেরা দ্বারা যা-ই তোলা হোক না কেন তা-ই কিন্তু ছবি। তাহলে আমরা কোথায় সেই বিভাজন রেখা টানবো যেখানে একটি ছবি শুধুই কতগুলি রেখার সমষ্টি না হয়ে, হয়ে উঠবে শিল্প? সঠিক বিষয় নির্বাচন, চিত্রানুপাত, উপস্থাপনা, বর্ণের বিন্যাস, কলা-কৌশল এবং সর্বোপরি কোনো বার্তা একটি আলোকচিত্রশিল্পের অন্যতম শর্ত। উপরোক্ত বিষয়গুলি একটি ছবিকে আলোকচিত্রে উত্তীর্ণ করে। যা শিল্পী দর্শকের মনে ভাব ও রসের সৃষ্টি করে আর এখানেই একজন আলোকচিত্রশিল্পীর সঙ্গে সাধারন ভাবে ‘সাটার টেপা’ আলোকচিত্রীর পার্থক্য। জীবন সুন্দর, রহস্যময়ও বটে। সভ্যতার আদিপর্ব থেকে মানুষ সৃষ্টি-রহস্য উন্মোচনে ব্যস্ত, নান্দনিকতার মাধুর্য্যে আপ্লুত। চিত্রের মাধ্যমে ভাব বিনিময় করে তাদের জীবনের ইতিকথা পরবর্তী প্রজন্মের কাছে রেখে যাওয়ার প্রয়াসে নিমগ্ন। তাই ‘চিত্র’কে বিবর্তনের যাত্রাপথের প্রমাণ হিসেবে ধরা যেতে পারে। জীবন-দর্শনের চিত্র, পৃথিবীর বুকে আমাদের স্থান নির্ণয়ের চিত্র। স্পেইনের আল-তা-মিরাহ্, ফ্রান্সের লাস্কো বা ভারতের ভীমবেদকর্ এ সবই গুহাচিত্রের মাধ্যমে তদানীন্তন জীবনের প্রতিচ্ছবি তুলে ধরা বা যোগাযোগ স্থাপনের আপ্রাণ চেষ্টা। এই চেষ্টাটাই পরবর্তী কালে তালে তাল মিলিয়ে শিল্পের রূপ নিয়েছে। শিল্প একটি সৃজনশীল বিষয়- অনুভূতিপ্রবন যা মনেই উদ্ভূত হয় এবং যে কোনো মাধ্যমের শিল্পই দৃষ্টি সংযোগ (visual communication)ছাড়া আর কিছুই নয়। শিল্পের একটি গুরুত্বপূর্ণ দিক হল শিল্পীর নিজের বোধ ও অনুভূতি প্রকাশ করা এবং তার দ্বারা মানুষের সঙ্গে যোগাযোগ স্থাপন করা। আলোকচিত্রও কিন্তু এই নিয়মের ব্যতিক্রম নয়। আলোকচিত্রী ছবির মাধ্যমে তাঁর মনের ভাব, অনুভূতি এবং উপলব্ধিগুলিকে প্রকাশ করে দর্শকের মনে রস সঞ্চারের চেষ্টা করে। কীভাবে একজন ব্যক্তি তাঁর বক্তব্য দর্শকের কাছে পৌঁছে দিতে পারেন সেটা নির্ভর করে তাঁর দক্ষতার উপর। যে দক্ষতার দ্বারা মৌলিক কিছু প্রকাশ পায়, চেনা পৃথিবীর ছবি অপর অনুভূতিপ্রবন মানুষের কাছে পৌঁছে না দিতে পারা পর্যন্ত স্বস্তি পাওয়া যায় না।
সংবেদনশীল মনেই শিল্প জন্মায়। তবে শুধুমাত্র সংবেদনশীলতাই সৃজনশীলতার জন্য যথেষ্ট নয়- উপলব্ধি প্রকাশ করার অপ্রতিরোধ্য ইচ্ছাশক্তিও থাকা দরকার। প্রায় স্বতঃস্ফূর্ত ও সহজাত ভঙ্গীতেই তা প্রকাশ করা হয় – কিন্তু সৃষ্টির প্রক্রিয়া সচেতনভাবেই করতে হয়। শিল্পী সচেতনভাবেই স্থির করেন সৃষ্টির সৌন্দর্য ও সমন্বয়ের প্রয়োজনে কি বলবেন কিভাবে বলবেন ও কতটা বাদ দেবেন বা প্রয়োজনে কিছু যোগ করবেন কি না। একজন শিল্পী চিত্রর ফ্রেমের মধ্যেই তাঁর অনুভূতি ব্যক্ত করার সুযোগ পান। তাঁর দক্ষতা যে পদ্ধতিতে সেই মাধ্যমেই বিষয়টিকে অনন্য ও মনোগ্রাহী করে তোলেন। কম্পোজিশন -আলোকচিত্র ভাষার ব্যাকরণ আলোকচিত্রের ক্ষেত্রে কম্পোজিশন একটি প্রক্রিয়া যার দ্বারা ছবিটির ভেতরের মুখ্য বস্তুগুলির স্থান এমনভাবে নির্ধারণ করা হয় যে ছবিটি একটি সৌন্দর্যের প্রতিমূর্তি হয়ে ওঠে। বলা যায় কম্পোজিশন হল চিত্রের ব্যাকরণ বা অবলোকন দৃশ্যশিল্পের ভাষা। শিল্পী তাঁর দৃশ্যকল্প ফুটিয়ে তোলেন চিত্রের মাধ্যমে। একটি নির্দিষ্ট ফ্রেমে উপাদানগুলির সঠিক বিন্যাস, রঙ ও আকারের সঠিক মেলবন্ধন এর উপর শিল্পীর বক্তব্য দর্শকের কাছে কি ভাবে পৌঁছবে তা নির্ভর করে।
একটি ছবির বক্তব্য স্পষ্ট করে তোলা ও তার ভারসাম্য ও সামঞ্জস্য, বৈপরীত্য ও সাদৃশ্য, পুনরাবৃত্তি ও নিরবচ্ছিন্নতা, ব্যাপ্তি ও বাঁক এইগুলিই কম্পোজিশনের কাঠামো। একটি সঠিক কম্পোজিশনে সঙ্গতিপূর্ণ ভারসাম্য ও সামঞ্জস্যের সঠিক মিশেল থাকা চাই। ছবিটির কম্পোজিশন টোন (বিষয়ের দৃশ্যমান ঔজ্বল্য),স্পষ্টতা (ফোকাস এগিয়ে পিছিয়ে), বৈপরীত্য (একঘেয়েমি কাটানোর জন্য), মাপ (বিশালত্ব, ব্যাপ্তি, বিভিন্ন বস্তুর মধ্যে সামঞ্জস্য), গভীরতা, টেক্সচার ইত্যাদির দ্বারা নির্ধারণ করা হয়।
আলোকচিত্রে রঙের ভাষা
আলোর উজ্জলতার তারতম্য ও বিন্যাস যে কোন আলোকচিত্রের মৌলিক উপাদান। যে কোন আলোকচিত্রই, তা সে ল্যান্ডস্কেপ, পোর্ট্রেট বা অন্য যে কোন বিষয়েরই হোক না কেন, সবই বিভিন্ন রঙ বা টোনের খেলা। রাস্কিন বলেন, যে সব মানুষের মন পরিমিত এবং সম্পূর্ণরূপে গঠিত, তারা রঙ উপভোগ করতে সক্ষম। রঙ মানুষের হৃদয়ে এক অপার্থিব আনন্দের সঞ্চার করে এবং এক শাশ্বত সুখের খোঁজ দেয়। আলোকচিত্রে রঙ ও বর্ণসমূহের (টোন) প্রভাব খুব গুরুত্বপূর্ণ। আলোকচিত্রের যে কোনো বিষয়বস্তুর আবেগ সংক্রান্ত ব্যাপার রঙের ভাষার মাধ্যমে প্রকাশ করা সম্ভব। এক একটি রঙের একেকরকম অর্থ, আবার একই রঙ ভিন্ন ভিন্ন পরিস্থিতি, সমাজ অথবা সংস্কৃতিতে ভিন্ন ভিন্ন অর্থ বহন করে। প্রত্যেকটি রঙের ইতিবাচক এবং নেতিবাচক অর্থ আছে। অতএব শৈল্পিক আলোকচিত্র তৈরি করার ক্ষেত্রে একজন শিল্পীর নিজের চিন্তাভাবনা দর্শকের কাছে পৌঁছে দিতে খুব সচেতনভাবে রঙের ব্যবহার করা উচিত,অনেকেই ট্রাফিক সিগনালের রঙের অর্থ জানেন—লালের অর্থ থেমে থাকা, হলুদের অর্থ এগিয়ে যাওয়ার জন্য প্রস্তুত হত্তয়া ও সবুজের অর্থ চলমান হওয়া। আলোকচিত্রের ক্ষেত্রেও এই রঙের নানান রককম সংজ্ঞা ব্যবহার করা হয়। এখানে কিছু রঙের প্রতীকী ও সাধারণ অর্থ নিয়ে আলোচনা করা হল।
লাল তীব্র উত্তেজনা ও শক্তির প্রতীক – ইতিবাচকভাবে লাল প্রেম, আবেগ ও উত্তেজনার ভাব প্রকাশ করে। আবার নেতিবাচকভাবে রাগ, বিপদ বা আগ্রাসন বোঝাতে ব্যবহার করা হয়। অর্থাৎ লাল চরম ভাব বোঝায়। প্রলোভন হিংস্রতা, উদ্দামতা, দু:সাহসিকতা ইত্যাদি বোঝাতেও লাল রঙ ব্যবহার করা হয়। প্রাগৈতিহাসিক যুগে লাল রঙ আগুন (শক্তির উৎস) ও রক্ত (প্রাথমিক জীবন) বোঝাতো।
গোলাপি রঙ লালেরই নমনীয় রূপ যা যৌবন, নারীত্ব, প্রেম এবং আবেগ, যত্ন, কোমলতা, গ্রহণ করা এবং শান্তির প্রতীক।
কমলা রঙ শরৎকাল ও ফসল কাটার সময়ের প্রতীক। উজ্জ্বল কমলা রঙ আনন্দ কৈশোর ও খামখেয়ালিপনা বোঝায়। শক্তি, ভারসাম্য, উদ্যমতা, উষ্ণতা, স্পন্দনশীলতা, বিস্তৃতি, জাঁকজমকপূর্ণ, মনোগ্রাহী করার প্রতীক।
হলুদ রঙ সূর্যালোক, আলো, এবং উষ্ণতার রঙ। ইতিবাচকভাবে হলুদ রঙ আশাবাদ, আনন্দ ও জ্ঞানের প্রতীক। আবার অপরদিকে বেশি মাত্রায় হলুদের ব্যবহার কাপুরুষতা, ঈর্ষা, শঠতার কথা বলে। কোনো মানুষের পিঠে একটি হলুদ রেখা এঁকে দেওয়ার মানে হল তাকে কাপুরুষতার প্রকৃষ্ট নিদর্শন হিসেবে দাগিয়ে দেওয়া। হলুদ আনন্দ, সুখ, বিশ্বাসঘাতকতা, আশাবাদ, আদর্শবাদ, কল্পনা, আশা, সূর্যালোক, গ্রীষ্ম, স্বর্ণ, দর্শন, অসাধুতা, কাপুরুষতা, ঈর্ষা, লালসা, প্রতারণা, অসুস্থতা, বিপত্তি এবং বন্ধুত্বর প্রতীক।
বাদামী রঙ পৃথিবীর রঙ। বাদামী রঙ গৃহসুখের কথা মনে করিয়ে দেয়। বাদামী রঙ পৃথিবী, স্থিতিশীলতা, ঘর ও বার, নির্ভরযোগ্যতা, ধৈর্য, সরলতা এবং স্বাচ্ছন্দ্য বোঝাতে ব্যবহার করা হয়।
নীল রঙ জল এবং আকাশের রঙ। নীলের ইতিবাচক সংজ্ঞাগুলি বিশ্বস্ততা, ন্যায়, জ্ঞান এবং বুদ্ধিমত্তা আর নেতিবাচক হল কাঠিন্য, উদাসীনতা, এবং বিষণ্নতা।
সবুজ রঙ প্রকৃতি বোঝায়। সবুজ রঙ বোঝাতে মানুষ প্রায়ই ঘাস এবং গাছের পাতার উল্লেখ করে। এছাড়া সবুজ অর্থেরও প্রতীক। ব্যাংকগুলি প্রায়ই তাদের লোগোতে সবুজ রঙ ব্যবহার করে। সবুজ রঙের নেতিবাচক সংজ্ঞাগুলি লোভ এবং ঈর্ষা। “ঈর্ষায় সবুজ” শব্দটি এর থেকেই প্রবর্তিত হয়েছে। সবুজ প্রকৃতি, পরিবেশ, সুস্বাস্থ, সৌভাগ্য, পুনর্ণবীকরণ, যৌবন, বসন্ত, উদারতা, উর্বরতা, ঈর্ষা, সেবা, অনভিজ্ঞতা, দুর্ভাগ্য, বলিষ্ঠতার প্রতীক।
প্রাচীনকাল থেকেই রাজকীয়তা বোঝাতে বেগুনি রঙের ব্যবহার হয়েছে। আভিজাত্য, আধ্যাত্মিকতা এবং রহস্যময়তা, অনুষ্ঠান, রূপান্তর, জ্ঞান, বোধ, নিষ্ঠুরতা, সম্মান, অহংকার, শোক, মেজাজের প্রতীক এই বেগুনি রঙ।
সাদা রঙ বিশুদ্ধতা এবং পরিচ্ছন্নতার প্রতীক। পশ্চিম দেশে বিয়ের কনে সাদা পোশাকে শোভিত হয় তাদের সরলতা ও বিশুদ্ধতার প্রতীক হিসেবে। সাদা কোমলতা, সরলতা, সততা, শ্রদ্ধা, বিশুদ্ধতা, জন্ম, পরিচ্ছন্নতা, শান্তি, নিরহঙ্কারতা, নির্ভুলতা, নির্দোষিতা, যৌবন, শীত, তুষার, ভাল, বিবাহ (পশ্চিম সংস্কৃতি),মৃত্যু (পূর্ব সংস্কৃতি), ঠান্ডা, রোগ সম্পর্কিত বিষয়ের প্রতীক।
কালো রঙ শক্তি এবং আভিজাত্যর রঙ। তা থেকেই “ব্ল্যাক টাই এফেয়ারের” উৎপত্তি। অবশ্যই এর একটি নেতিবাচক দিকও আছে যেমন ভয়, নেতিবাচকতা, এবং মন্দতা। “একটি কালো আত্মা” উক্তিটি একটি মন্দ মানুষের জন্য প্রযোজ্য। শক্তি, যৌনতা, পরিশীলতা, লৌকিকতা, আভিজাত্য, ধন, রহস্য, ভয়, মন্দ, নিরানন্দ, গভীরতা, শৈলী বোঝাতে কালো ব্যবহৃত হয়।
ছবিতে রঙের কাজ কি? সব থেকে সহজ ব্যাখ্যা হল ছবিটির আপাতভাবে দৃশ্যমান সত্য দর্শকের সামনে তুলে ধরা এবং তা স্বাভাবিক ছন্দ বজায় রেখেই। তাছাড়াও আরো তিনটি ধরন আছে যেমন দ্য হের্যাল্ডিক (the heraldic), দ্য হারমোনিক ও দ্য পিওর। । দ্য হের্যাল্ডিকের ব্যবহার সম্ভবত সবচেয়ে প্রাচীন এবং এই ধরনটির তাৎপর্য হল এটি প্রতীক হিসেবে ব্যবহৃত হয়। একটি শিশুকে যদি তার নিজের রঙের পছন্দমত ছবি আঁকতে দেওয়া হয় তাহলে সে সর্বদাই গাছটি সবুজ এবং আকাশ নীল রঙ করবে, যদিও গাছটি বাদামী এবং আকাশের রঙ ধূসর ও হতে পারে। দ্য হারমনিক মোডে শিল্পী একটি বস্তুকে আলো-ছায়ার নিরিখে দেখেন তারপর তিনি ঠিক করেন টোনের মান ও রঙের আপেক্ষিক ঘনত্ব যা সার্বিকভাবে ছবির আলোর রঙের সঙ্গে মিলে যায় ও একটি নির্দিষ্ট মাপে রঙগুলি নিয়ন্ত্রিত করে। ছবিতে যে রঙটি সব থেকে বেশি প্রভাব বিস্তার করেছে সেই মূল রঙটির কাছাকাছি অন্যান্য রঙগুলিকে একটু বাড়িয়ে বা কমিয়ে নিয়ে আসা হয়। দ্য পিওর মোডে রঙ তার নিজের জন্যই ব্যবহার করা হয়। রঙের বিশুদ্ধতম ঘনত্বই ব্যবহার করা হয় এবং এরই মধ্যে একটি নকশা এমন ভাবে তৈরি হয় যাতে তুলনামূলক ঘনত্ব ও অঞ্চলের বৈপরীত্য দেখা যায়। এখানে উদ্দেশ্য সৌন্দর্যবৃদ্ধি, দৃশ্যমান সত্য গৌণ। রঙ এখানে ইন্দ্রি়য়-আবেদন জাগিয়ে তুললো।
আলোকচিত্র পৃথিবীর সবথেকে বেশি সর্বজনগ্রাহ্য ভাষা। সবাই এই ভাষা বোঝে- শ্রেনী , শিক্ষা, আর্থ-সামাজিক অবস্থান, কথ্য ভাষা, নির্বিশেষে। আলোকচিত্রের দৃশ্যমান ভাষা বিশেষভাবে ধনী ভাষা, যা সবার কাছে সমান ভাবে পৌঁছয় ও বোধগম্য হয়। তাই জাতি, ধর্ম, বর্ণ নির্বিশেষে সকল ভাষাভাষী লোকের কাছেই আলোকচিত্র সমানভাবে সমাদ্রিত, আকর্ষণীয় ও উপলব্ধ। তাই আলোকচিত্র বিশ্বভাতৃত্ব স্থাপনে সহায়ক হবে এতে কোন দ্বিমত নেই। আলোকচিত্র সকল ভাষাভাষী দর্শকদের মনে আনন্দ, শান্তি ও সমৃদ্ধি বহন করে আনুক এই প্রার্থনা করি।
2019 April: Nabarun Sahitya Gosthi Patrika (No weblink)
A Thing of Beauty is a Joy for Ever
1. Introduction
According Webster’s dictionary “Beauty is the quality attributed to whatever pleases or satisfies the senses or mind as by line, color, form, texture, proportion, rhythmic motion, tone etc.; or any very attractive feature”. Beauty is the quality that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is associated with such properties as harmony of form or color, excellence of artistry, truthfulness and originality. According to Confucius “Everything has beauty but not every one sees it”. “To love beauty is to see light” is the statement made by Victor Hugo. Ralph Waldo Emerson said “The love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art”. Rabindranath Tagore said, “Beauty is in the ideal of perfect harmony which is in the universal being; truth the perfect comprehension of the universal mind”.
Beautiful things always attract us. There is an inherent sense of good feeling when we experience something beautiful. The sense of feeling good mostly depends on the viewer’s experience, imagination, belief, gender, etc. A creation that is acclaimed by general viewers as a beautiful piece of art may not be necessarily acceptable to the judges and critics (say, in a Photographic Salon or Art competition). However, we humans have some common instincts, experiences and expectations; hence some things are commonly held to be beautiful by most of the people and always prove to be a source of enjoyment. Pan Indian philosophical definition of the Supreme is very simple -‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’. ‘Sat’ is the true value, ‘Shiv’ is the good value, ‘Sundaram’ is the beauty value. This value system is the foundation of Indian Aesthetics. According to the Indian aesthetic theory, Man is a miniature divine being. He embarks into a journey of creativity through the process of Education, Experience and Practice. This journey of aesthetics is a devotional journey towards Ultimate Reality with the sole purpose of merging with the Supreme! The Indian Art is idealistic, mystic, symbolic and transcendental. The Indian artist is both Priest and Poet.
‘A thing of beauty is a joy forever’. In this famous opening line form Endymion, Keats speaks about the everlasting quality of beauty. Beauty, in whatever form it may be found, is an eternal joy to humans, because it offers humans the constant opportunity to reflect on that beauty, which stands in such stark comparison to the monotony and ugliness of our everyday lives. In spite of all the difficulties and the sufferings that humans face, beauty has the ability to produce happiness and temporarily shift the burdens humans bear. “Beauty” for Keats, both includes physical objects which are examples of natural beauty such as daffodils, but also beauty that can be found in art, such as “the lovely tales we have heard or read.” All of these forms of beauty act as “an endless fountain of immortal drink,” allowing humans to forget bleak reality and experience joy. Keats tells his readers that beauty continues on even when it can’t be seen by the naked eye. People just need to realize true beauty and capture it in memories, paintings, sculptures, poems and songs, photographs, and through other means.
Beauty of Taj Mahal or that of Niagara Falls or the Kanchanjunga is always joy forever. Masterpieces like ‘Birth of Venus’ (1486) by Sandro Botticelli, ‘Madonna’ (1505) by Raphael, ‘Mona Lisa’ (1503) by Leonardo da Vinci, ‘Valpincon Bather’ (1808) by Ingres. or ‘Starry Night’ (1889) by Van Gogh are only a few examples of creative beauty which are objects of joy forever. A creative art irrespective of any medium provides an equal aesthetic pleasure and thus both the process and the product of all mediums are equally enjoyable. All forms of visual art require an artist to create his work by copying from life and nature and or from his creative imagination.
2. Beautiful Nature
Wonderful Nature is an integral part of our lives. Nature is the greatest storehouse of beauty. The countless objects of Nature are things of beauty that are joy forever. Nature has myriad facets. It keeps changing from time to time. Man has always tried to appreciate the beauties of nature and portray her mysteries with intuition (Prativa) and creative imagination. The pristine beauty of the splashing water of the roaring sea at the Vivekananda rock temple, the grandeurs of the Himalayas with its colorful hue, the rugged Aravallis, the lush green valleys of the Nilgiris, the fantastic natural scenes at Kailash Manas Sarobar, the charms of the mountain desert at Ladakh, the colorful beauties at the Valley of Flowers, the awe-inspiring depths of the Grand Canyon, the magnificence of the Niagara falls, the ‘Moonlit Sonata’ at the Alps, the starlit night at the sea beach and ripples at the sand dunes, have attracted and inspired humanity since eternity. The beauty of nature has been extolled in the works of poets and artists throughout the world. When Wordsworth describes the daffodils dancing in the breeze or when our eyes alight on a painting by William Turner; our hearts are filled with an indescribable emotion. Indeed, Nature is the manifestation of the Truth and Beauty of God.
3. Beauty, Art and Aesthetics
Life is beautiful and interesting. Since the dawn of civilization man has been interested in mystery of creation and has found pleasure in aesthetics. Mankind appreciated all that was beautiful in nature and felt an urge to create a beauty through imitation and imagination. Moreover, imagination opts for expression and expression takes place through any medium or avenue.
3.1 Beauty
Beauty is considered as a significant part in case of any artistic creation. Beauty in terms of art refers to an interaction between line, color, texture, sound, shape, motion, and size that is pleasing to the senses. A pretty face or figure of a woman; bounty of flora and fauna of this beautiful nature with its varied appearances in different time and seasons; flowers, birds, butterflies etc. are accepted as universal beauty. Sometime even simple things like leafless trees, broken glass, a colorful texture, an abandoned building may all become a beautiful object of visual art.
3.2 Art
According to J. Reylond ‘Art has beauty for its objects’. Most of the painters and photographers would agree that they are in pursuit of beauty even though they may not all appreciate equally an object as beautiful. Yet beauty is an inseparable aspect from art as art cannot be void of beauty. Art is a creative process. It originates in a sensitive human soul which cannot help communicating to others what has been seen, heard and felt. The Artist selects a subject, eliminates from it what he considers redundant and adds to it what he feels should be essential to complete a meaning of a picture. When the job is complete the subject acquires a new look, a new meaning and, last but not the least, a beauty which has so long remained unnoticed. The common place becomes uncommon because it has taken up the hue. Of the artist’s mind the artist has created something new and beautiful from what already exists not by coping it, not by reproducing it but by rearranging it and by holding it in a new perspective. Essentially, therefore, Art is a process of re-creation, distinguished from reproduction, which has a spiritual rather than material end in view providing aesthetic pleasure. Aesthetics plays a vital role in this context. It is central to any exploration of art.
3.3 Aesthetics
The word “aesthetic” is derived from the Greek word “aisthetikos,” meaning “esthetic, sensitive, or sentient”. Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensory emotional values, sometimes called judgment of sentiment and taste. More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as ‘critical reflection on art, culture and nature.’ Aesthetics is a sub discipline of axiology, a branch of philosophy, and is closely associated with the philosophy of art. Aesthetic studies are new ways of seeing and of perceiving the world. Aesthetics is mainly concerned with the perception and sense of beauty. For Immanuel Kant, the aesthetic
experience of beauty is a judgment of a subjective, but common, human truth.
4. Conclusion
Any field of Art plays a very significant role in elevating man’s innovative ideas, aesthetic awareness and creative pursuit. Visual Arts provide an overall satisfaction and nourishment of the mental faculties. Art can be aptly described as the ‘Sap and Blood’ of human civilization as well as human life. The wheel of life can run smoothly with the inspiration and aspiration by art. We delight at the aesthetics of the visual arts be it painting or photography utilizing the elements of this mundane world inspired by the beauties of Nature. It should be remembered that whatever may be the medium the ultimate product is an art provided the man behind the product is an artist, who has sense of aesthetic visualization and ability to convey his own feeling in a new look. We must remember that ‘Beauty is truth and Truth is Beauty”. ‘Satym Shivam Sundaram’ is the main philosophy of Indian Art. Let us enjoy the beauties of this diverse Nature through Creative Process as a form of Visual Art and sublimity to life. Let the “Things of Beauty” always continue to bring pleasure, peace, tranquility, harmony and joy in our life.
2018 December: Page 59, FIAP News
A Brief report on Photo Workshop in Greece
Last November I received an invitation from Mr. Ioannis Lykouris, the Hony. Secretary-General of FIAP & the Vice President of the Hellenic Photographic Society of Greece to attend a photographic workshop in Greece along with other PAD members. Under the leadership of Mr. Ioannis Lykouris, a Photo Workshop in Greece was organized to promote and propagate International Photography and to enhance cultural bondage between nations during 7th -14th May 2018. Ten delegates from five countries participated in the workshop, We (Dr. Ganguly, Myself, Mr. Mrinal Bandhyopadhyoy and Mr. Subrata Dutta) four from India, Mr. Vasja Doberlet liaison officer Slovenia and his wife Mrs. Bojana Doberlet, Ms. Martna Vasselin , FIAP liaison officer Chilli, Mr. Milan Veliky, FIAP liaison officer Slovakia, Dr. Ahmed Abdullah and Mrs. Balqees Ahmed Fakhro from Baharin.
We reached Athens Airport in the morning of 7th May, 2018 from Santaroni and later joined by Subrata Dutta, who flew in from Rome. We were received at the airport by a representative of Mr. Lykouris who escorted us to our hotel at around 12 noon. As our workshop was scheduled from seven in the evening, we took an early lunch and went for a stroll in nearby areas as the weather was very pleasant.
The focal motive of the workshop was to present photographers, who themselves are expert in their respective fields, an opportunity to produce photographic masterpieces. It also provided the participants, who were highly experienced, talented and conversant with different photographic technologies, a scope to share views among themselves. This was indeed quite contrary to our idea of a photographic workshop, where we are accustomed to delivering lectures and imparting knowledge of various aspects of photography to the participants. But at the hindsight, I must say that this was a most welcome deviation.
The first session of the workshop was on Architectural Photography which started at around 10:30 in the morning of 9th May at the Acropolis. It took us an hour’s walk to reach from our hotel, but we were able to take some candid pictures while walking.
The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historic significance, the most famous and magnificent being the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. The place was too crowded with tourists from all over the world and the weather played spoilsport, fluctuating every now and then. Though we could not photograph the architectures, it gave us plenty of scopes to make excellent candid pictures. Moreover, I fulfilled my long cherished dream to visit Acropolis especially the Parthenon, which was one of the main reasons for me joining the workshop. We spent a couple of hours at the Acropolis and returned back to our hotel for lunch.
The second session for ‘Candid Photography’ was scheduled at the Acropolis Museum, a short distance from our hotel, in the afternoon. The walk through the main corridor which leads to the entrance of the museum was amazing, as I was for the first time walking on a glass road, beneath which were displayed historical relics from 5thCentury BC. There were some restrictions for photography in the museum and flash was prohibited. However, we took some record shots. We were then taken to the parliament and took excellent pictures of the ‘Change of Guard’, which takes place every hour at the parliament gate. Later on we visited the University, Academy and the Library. The day ended with a sumptuous dinner with Mr. Lykouris and other participants while exchanging views.
On 9th morning around 9-30 am we headed to a nearby place called Plaka, an old historical neighbourhood, an urban village so to speak, for the 3rd session of the workshop on “Urban Photography”. The main objective of this session was to look for the tiny intricacies, pattern and shapes that otherwise go unnoticed. Proper angle of view, composition and form were things for consideration. There were plenty of beautiful, small colourful buildings with a variety of doors and windows having decorations with creepers and flowers along the lanes. Few houses had interesting staircases as well. There were many houses with fascinating paintings on the walls which were somewhat peculiar in a sense; slogan oriented and also bit sarcastic, but quite interesting for thematic candid or street photography.
From there we went to a very busy marketplace near Plaka Metro station for Lifestyle photography which was our 4th Session. We returned to the Hotel by metro for lunch.
In the afternoon the fifth session titled ‘Black & White Photography’ was at the Olympic Stadium, where the first Olympiad was held. The unique gallery made of marble with an accommodation of around seventy thousand was worth shooting. The tunnel adjacent to the stadium was simply amazing the a photo artists
The sixth Session was on Sunset Photography and the 7th Session was on Night Photography. We returned hotel bit late and had our dinner.
On 10th May we started a bit late after breakfast by bus and took a vessel for Aegina Island in the Saronic gulf, 27 Km from Athens. The name Aegina was derived from the name of the mother of the hero Aeacus. For me, it was a unique feeling since I had no prior experience of traveling on the sea. Every moment of the journey was enthralling and we very much enjoyed the scenic beauty. At one point plenty of seagulls started flying around the vessel for food. We took a lot of candid shots on deck with people in different mood and style in the backdrop flying seagulls and seascape. As today’s trip was organised for the eight to tenth sessions titled “Seascape , Interior using Natural light ” and “Travel Photography”.
A one and half hour journey took us to the Aegina Port from where we were taken to our hotel Danae. After lunch, some of us walked to the Lighthouse. A heavy drizzle interrupted our programme as we were forced to pack up our cameras and returned back to hotel fully drenched. After a while, we went to Aegina and spent around an hour there. That’s a place famous for pasta and olive. Then we went to a fishermen’s village. We returned back to Aegina for dinner and then back to the hotel.
On 12th morning we left Danae hotel and came to port and board the vessel for our return journey. Again a fantastic journey ,this time there were plenty of seagulls flying here and there. We roamed here and there on the deck to capture different moments and natural beauties of the surroundings. We reached Piraeus Port and from there we went to Saint Nectarios of Aegina a monastery of Holy Trinity for our 11th session on “Religious photography”. We spent some time for a Greek marriage ritual. From there we visited the Cornith Canal and went to local tavern for lunch on the sea side . Then we went to Nafplio a seaport town and Palamidis –a fortress overlooking the town of Nafplio. We visited Hellenic wildlife care centre . During the day we covered our topics on :Religious, Nature and Areial and Panoramic Photography.concerning our 11th to15th Sessions. And finally returned our hotel in Athens where we had long hours discussions with our fellow friends. After that some of us had to spend night for our works to be submitted for the exhibition of five prints of each participants.
13th was the last day of our workshop. In the morning we had no specific schedule. We had our own marketing or rest. In the evening we went to Hellenic Photographic Society where we had an exhibition of Prints taken by the participant in the FIAP Art Gallery. In the valedictory session many dignitaries were present. I had the opportunity to delivered a talk on “Pictorial Photography-A visual Art – As viewed by an Indian Pictorialist” which was appreciated by many and my article was translated and circulated in Greek. Participation Certificates and mementos were given to the delegates by Mr. Spyro, President of the HPS.
2018 October, Image (No weblink)