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Photography workshop with bet children
A note by Mr. Nitin Upadhye-
October 14th
2008, 6.50am, on a gutted road in the valley of Kashmir, a group of six
Kashmiri children armed with cameras in their hands was traveling in a
jeep. Their boundless inner world exploded as they pressed the trigger
of their cameras pointing at everything that took their fancy. Every now
and then they screamed for the driver to stop the jeep, sprang out from
all sides and shot photos to their heart’s content. The landscape and
people of Kashmir certainly didn’t mind getting captured by these little
ones who held cameras in their hands for the first time. It was the
photography workshop of Basera-e-Tabassum children in progress.
The idea behind this photography workshop
was to explore the potentials of these children. Since they are growing
up in an environment that offers few, if any, possibilities of their
talents/potentials/qualities being discovered and developed, BWF has
initiated a slow but steady flow of activities, starting with the
Education-Culture Exchange Tour that was conducted in February 2008.
This photography workshop was another step in that direction. What
became the starting point of this activity was an announcement of “All
India Photography Contest for Children 2008” - being conducted by
‘National Council of Educational Research and Training’ which is in New
Delhi.
The themes of this contest were – (1)
“Nature – encompassing all natural phenomena and features, living and
non-living” and (2) “Humans in action – encompassing people's life,
their work, their culture.”
These provided perfect and most
appropriate themes to start on. The children of Basera-e-Tabassum had
absolutely no experience in this form of art. Additionally, photography
being quite technical in its application, the challenge was how to teach
them the basics without letting technicality become a distraction.
After a lot of thought and prayer, I
decided to go with cameras that were high-end but yet user friendly. I
contemplated a lot and recalled all the previous photography workshops I
had done with various children, and decided to set the cameras on
“aperture priority” mode and let them shoot without getting distracted
by having to check and keep resetting the cameras for exposure.
Another great hurdle was language. I have
studied everything about photography in English, primarily because
literature on photography is available mostly in English. I can’t speak
Kashmiri and was at a complete loss of words when it came to explaining
the basics to the children. I prayed to connect with them on ‘life
level’ rather than on an intellectual level. With Supriya’s invaluable
help, I was able to convey some of it through words and a lot of it from
heart.
My friends Joy Dutta, Ritesh Menon,
Saloni Gadgil and Hetal Bhavsar lent their expensive cameras for this
exercise. These cameras cost between Rs. 40,000 to 1,50,000. In response
to one phone call, without blinking their eyelids, they picked up their
camera-kits and handed them over to me. I have determined to respond to
their generosity with working harder and producing concrete results.
We started with discussing the approach to this art form and
concluded on 2 major points. One was – ‘we will look with love, at
whatever or whoever we will photograph’ and secondly ‘we will photograph
everything with the spirit of sharing the joy and beauty of life and
Kashmir with our friends from all
around the world’.
All this while my silent but strong and sincere wish was
that the children discover how amazing they themselves are. I hoped with
all my heart that they will feel a sense of joy, satisfaction and also
feel empowered in a way of free expression. I decided to pray earnestly
and give them every support that they would require on this long and
busy journey.
After the fist day’s briefing six children and I went on a
long walk crossing a small river and going up the hill behind, crossing
an apple orchid on our way back, passing though a village settlement, we
shot everything – the flowing water, trees, leaves, boys playing by the
river, women, men, mountains, apples, apples being taken off the trees
and packed for sale…
What was most fascinating for me was to watch them fly
freely with their cameras, photographing their own native land and
people with such celebration in their eyes. The bounce in their steps
made it loud and clear how much they were enjoying it. I felt emotional
and deeply encouraged as I watched this great drama. I have shot a lot
of photos of them in action and I am attaching them here.
Next morning, we, the team of 8 people – Ishrat, Rabia,
Sunita, Nuzhat, Salima (the manager-in-chief of the Kupwara Home),
Supriya (the Project Development Executive) and me – left Kupwara in a
jeep loaded and ready for a 5 day ‘photography road trip’ through the
valley.
For the photos of the trip please go to :
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