Portraiture (1970)

From my boyhood, apart from not owning a camera, I never gravitated toward photography. Nor did I wish to be photographed. But when I was twelve, two pictures that I took using a friend's camera, when I was leading a school tour from my home in Calcutta to Darjeeling, won the princely prize of Rs. 10 in a Parsi magazine. I was already known as an 'artist'; now my popularity in school grew, as a photographer too. 

Within six months, from a simple box camera, I journeyed through the understanding of depth of field, aperture, exposure, distance between the lens and the subject, film speed (in ASA or DIN). I easily began to share my new knowledge with my schoolmates, teachers, whoever was interested or asked. But even after this, I did not get seriously involved with photography.

My classmates, friends, relatives, made it a rule that when they bought a camera, the first roll should be exposed by Ramesh. I never learned how good I was, but I felt that I thought clearly. I learned to do so because I taught others, and discussed what I would or would not have done, and why and how.

To make a long story short, I do have cameras now, and I am still a good teacher of the intricacies of composition, when to click, what to avoid, etc.

I took this picture at the request of a venerable gentleman who was once the Diwan of Jaipur; I was told that his title was Rajratna Pratap Rai. At the time that I photographed him, he was running an industry in Bangalore. Among his guests were Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the President/s, and people from many walks of life who headed their institutions, and to whom I was too ordinary to be known.

To see my first, prize-winning photographs, 'Sole Sentinel' and 'Kiss of Dawn', taken in 1948, please click here.