Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Wildlife


In 1978 an exhibition of my photographs (shown with poems which were written for them; or the pictures were taken for some of the poems that I wrote) was held in Bangalore. The then-Governor of Karnataka, Govind Narain, ICS, opened the exhibition, in the company of Raja Ravi Varma of Trivandrum, and members of the Secretariat. Among several speakers, the Governor also spoke. He had prepared his speech after his secretary had gone through the exhibition and taken notes, so that the speech became relevant and erudite. The draft of the speech was sent to me in advance, to seek my approval and comments.

Gov. Govind Narain going around the exhibition with me.

The Bangalore Photography Club members were also at the opening and thereafter. The then-President of the Club invited me to speak to the members at the Club premises. I felt honoured, and not very sure of having deserved such an honor. However, I agreed, and suggested that if the meeting were to be held at the exhibition gallery, that would be more effective, as there could be a question and answer session after the talk, specifically about my pictures, my approach to photography, and other aspects of photography in general.

The exhibition lasted for ten days, extended to twelve, and the meeting was held on the last day. After pleasantries and my talk on my interests, approach and limitations, when questions were to be asked, most of the questions related to wildlife photography. I discovered (for the first time; this was my fifth one-man show) that almost every member was into wildlife photography, and had questions related to it.


E. Hanumantha Rao, who was a friend, and who was among the few Indians who qualified for the ultimate in wildlife photography at that time, when, from India, there were only two or three such photographers whose work was encyclopedic and accepted by Life, National Geographic and other prestigious publications, was also present.

As wildlife photography was a subject farthest from my acumen or interest, I could only talk about technical aspects such as depth of field, and long exposures; and generally show appreciation for the adventurous spirit which was the most important thing required for that brand of photographic activity. I was appropriately apologetic for not being one of them. I said that my own interest was more in aesthetics: in balance, composition, the play of light and shadow, and so on. I felt that an excellent wildlife photograph might or might not have these elements: they were secondary to the capture by the camera of the animals themselves. Nowadays, of course, there are many highly talented and artistic photographers of wildlife. 

In those days, as I discovered then, birds, butterflies and other insects were considered to be part of 'nature photography,' while wildlife photography involved trekking, camping in the wilderness with a tent and all the other such paraphernalia, lying in wait for hours and often several days and weeks, with camera at the ready. Eventually, the animals of the jungle would become accustomed to the presence of the photographer, and would yawn or perform some other natural act as they lived out their lives, providing wonderful, but more importantly, informative and educative photo opportunities.

Anyway, the above, probably boring, preamble, is to introduce my first wildlife photograph: a mosquito on my pajama, having been vanquished, crushed, in the act of disproportionately gorging itself on my blood, and therefore unable to fly. So here it is, Ladies and Gentlemen. Please bear with me, and be indulgent. Do think of my indignation at the audacity and greed of the mosquito, even though I appreciate that it was only fending for its life.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bhai,

To add to my comment on Facebook, this is more like a 'wild death' than 'wildlife'.

charu