Tiffinbox

Sharad Haksar: Popular Photographer

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Sharad

I remember one very hot summer driving past the Old Woodlands drive-in restaurant [good God those masala dosas were good weren't they when that place was hummin'?] and I saw a rather curious advertisement on the road. It was an image of a Badminton shuttlecock with a condom on the cork end of it. I can't quite remember the tag line but man did that image stick in my head. Obviously it was a progressive, pro-active public service message. But unlike the ubiquitous Nirodh or family planning advertisements that one can see on many an unwelcome compound wall in Chennai, this advertisement was self-financed by Sharad Haksar, a Chennai-based commercial photographer.

Sharad_mugA mutual friend, Keshav Prakash (an exquisite cinematographer), reintroduced me to Sharad which was how I came to know about the advertisement being his creation. I haven't been in touch with Sharad recently but I know he and his business has been booming; mostly due to his interesting and off-beat perspective on things.

Now Popular Photography has announced the Photographer of the Year award and Sharad is in the running for the top spot. In fact, out of thousands of applicants, he has made it into the top-ten. That's quite a feat.

Sharad's entries can be seen here. I wouldn't urge you to vote for him if I didn't think his work was up to snuff [to vote for him please click the link and then click the radio button next to photographer number 9]. The fact is Sharad's innovative and creative thinking on a slew of campaigns has deservedly brought him fame. It has also placed Chennai (Madras to most of us) on the map for extremely high quality commerical photography.

The deadline to vote is May 31. The winning photographer receives a plane ticket to NYC and $5000 prize to be presumably spent on a project of the photographer's choice.

QuickLinks

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Starting today I am going to post links here in a style that echoes Jason Kottke or Dave Winer. These will be quick links to interesting information, or at least what I consider interesting.

I am doing this partly because I have little time to navel gaze or stew over large chunks of text. You might still hear from me when time presents itself but this is where things are going to go from now on.

So let's begin … [the way I think this works best is if I just post what I have so far and then go back and keep adding to this one post for the day]:

Actress Penelope Cruz plays Mother Teresa in a documentary.

Indian government acknowledges the role of bloggers and moves to accredit “net journalists.”

Don't take pictures of a picture. You'll get cited [at least in California].

Cult camera-maker Leica is fighting for its life. [Does this news make my M6TTL worth more or less?]

‘Dastaar: Defending Sikh Identity,' documentary “… film explores how media imagery fuels association of the turban with terrorism, leading to widespread discrimination against Sikhs.” Watch it at New York City's Asian American International Film Festival in July.

FILE magazine. Unexpected photography. Nevermind the obvious anagram, anyone notice the creative nod to LIFE magazine?

“Photography, Like Journalism, Has No Intellectual Tradition”

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I received a note from Mahesh Bhat, a photojournalist based in Bangalore and a well-wisher of Tiffinbox. If you remember, Mahesh went out to Perpignan last year. Nevermind that I turned green with envy for him being there in the midst of such great photojournalism, but the man happened to strike up many great conversations with some incredible photographers.

Find below one email exchange Mahesh had with Pakistani photojournalist Asim Rafiqui:

Mahesh Bhat:
There are a couple of things about photographers that bother me, I thought I should share with you. You know magazines routinely publish lists of most influential people from different walks of life, lists of people whose work and ideas inspire us. They feature politicians, academics, actors, film makers, musicians, business people, activists, writers … but never photographers. Why is that; is it because our work does not influence anyone? Or is it because the media is such that photography is always seen as mere illustration? Or is photography something that is meant to be glanced rather than remembered and mulled over? Can photography books never attain the status of fiction say? What do you think Asim?

Another thing is that why we photographers are always contacted at the last moment? (even for features) Most of the time we get very little time to work on stories. I wonder if they rush their writers as well?

Asim Rafiqui:
The question you ask about the influence of photographers of current society and culture is a good one. Today when lists of the ‘most influential' are produced, they are no more than celebrity lists. And photographers are usually never celebrities. Richard Avedon perhaps, Herb Ritts, and a few other celebrity photographers sometimes do make it to the list, but in general we are not seen as influencers of culture. And there is something to that. Susan Sontag had some poignant points in her recent book ‘Witnessing The Pain Of Others,' made a point that photography is unable to set a moral compulsion without an appropriate political or cultural context already present. It can help create one, but it cannot in and of itself, be the impulse for one. I will not elaborate on her arguments, but only point out that she too realized that photography reflects but rarely ever defines a society.

I remember [John] Berger talking about how the most famous photographs and the greatest photographers often evoke memory through their images i.e. their pictures remind us of something in the past, or capture our ideas of the past that we now wish to preserve. [André] Kertesz, [Henri] Cartier-Bresson were brilliant in picturing the cliches of Paris in the 1920 and 1930 and even today the best known photographers capture best what we believe the reality to be and that we can see confirmed in their images. So even Berger seems to think that photography is about memory, and not about creating the future.

In fact, it is a common fact that most people cannot relate to photographs that get their timing wrong e.g. photojournalistic pieces of no catastrophes that have as yet not been declared as such by editors and politicians. Sudan and [Olivier] Jobard's work comes to mind – he went out too early and no one would publish the work.

So I think that photographers are not influencers of the future, but documenters of the past or of the current. The other problem is that photography, like journalism, has no intellectual tradition. So unlike painting, literature and so on it lacks the history and depth that is often associated with valued pursuits.

I don't think it is the media; after all there are many photographers working outside of media. Dayanita singh who is doing more and more outside magazines and so on comes to mind.

That being said, i think that some photographers who cross over to art more explicitly can be considered as major influences. I am thinking about Alfredo Jaar who has had a major influence and I think is absolutely brilliant. He is a photographer who is more now an artist and has publications and exhibtions that are massively attended. I would say that he is in fact recognized as a major influence in modern art circles.

So that was not an answer, but just comments.

As for editors – well, magazines use photography as illustrations. Editors are not photographers. They do not understand photography. They have no interest in it and they cannot do it. And besides, editors fight for control and any chance they can get to marginalize someone else they will take it. This is an old batter – read Eugene Smith arguing with his Life editors and you can see that this goes back to the early days of photojournalism. We will not change this regardless so there is no point in waiting :)

Mahesh Bhat:
Thank you so much for writing such a detailed reply! I really appreciate it. I agree with you completely that photography has no intellectual tradition. Perhaps that is the main reason why photography is seen as an art that does not define a society. Perhaps we photographers are really to blame. But I do believe that there has been a lot of thought provoking photography has been done by many photographers that has the intellectual rigour of say great prose. Salgado and Robert Frank are on the top of my list. Raghubir Singh and Raghu Rai have influenced many… I love your work “Trapped in someone else's dream.” I feel that it's very sensitive and profound. What would have been the reception by editors and critics if someone had written a book on the same subject or a feature film on that theme? I am sure that you would have been a celebrity by now!!

But photography is always been seen as a tool to illustrate – always a means to an end. I guess we photographers are to blame for it. We have always remained in the periphery and never really in the main stream of the art or literary world.

I'll comment on this lively exchange in a day or so, but I feel compelled to [tinge of irony ain't it] publish this, yes, intellectual exchange that both Mahesh and Asim feel doesn't exist in photography circles.

Would love to hear from you all about what you think. You know where to leave your comments.

I Am Alive: Photographs from the Tsunami

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© Angela Jimenez

Angela Jimenez is a freelance photojournalist based in New York City. She shoots for World Picture News, The New York Times and The Newark Star-Ledger.

Angela covered the aftermath of the tsunami in January and February 2005. She and fellow photog Lila Lee are having a benefit exhibit of their work from the project that runs through May 29th in New York City.

I Am Alive: Photographs from the Tsunami is a study of those who survived the tsunami itself but are now struggling to rebuild their lives and their livelihoods. In December 2004, a tsunami, caused by an underwater earthquake, killed nearly 250,000 people in 11 countries and destroyed lives and property of some of the poorest people in the world. Ms. Jimenez and Ms. Lee undertook extended periods in hard hit communities to understand and capture the overwhelming task of rebuilding and the resilience of these survivors.

The work will be exhibited at the Bolivar Arellano Galleryat 420 East 9th Street, between 1st Avenue and Avenue A, New York City, 10009, telephone 212-420-1263. The gallery is accessible via the N/R to 8th Street, 6 to Astor Place or F to 2nd Avenue. Visitors can view the exhibit from May 6th through May 29th 2005, Wednesdays through Sundays between 2pm and 8pm.

All proceeds from the benefit opening party and a portion of print sales will be donated to the South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societiesand Aid 4 Aceh. SIFFS, an Indian-based fishing industry support group, is running engine and boat repairs in Tamil Nadu to help fishermen and their families regain their livelihood. Aid 4 Aceh is an Australian-based non-profit which is collecting medical supplies donated by pharmaceutical companies and distributing them to non-profits and hospitals in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

The show is sponsored by Quinnox, a Chicago-based Indian-owned consulting company and by Duggal, the renowned New York City visual imaging company.

Tiffinbooks, May

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It's that time of the month again when I shift gears and introduce you to a new book. This month, on this site, I'll be showcasing Kamil Shamsie's new book, Broken Verses.

“Combining the personal with the political, Broken Verses is a thrilling journey through the sights and sounds of modern-day Pakistan, a carefully coded mystery, and an emotionally charged mother-daughter story that asks how we forgive a mother who leaves.”

Coincidentally, the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) is presenting a book reading by Kamila Shamsie on Friday, May 20th at 7:00 p.m., at Barnes & Noble, Astor Place, New York City. If you are in the city, please attend the reading.

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