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Sunny
05-08-2009, 07:32 PM
I am just coming back from attending Raghu Rai's master class at Aurobindo Center for Arts and Communication.

It was a two hour session of great talk by him. Some of the things that he mentioned in the master class were:


When a young girl asked him should I be practicing with a film camera? He firmly replied: "Why? Did your grandfather made films and do you owe him royalty?" He said that the digital cameras today are so fantastic and useful that only a personal caught in a time warp and on the pretense of nostalgia will keep using them.
As a photographer, speciaslly as a photojournalist you should be as invisible (ordinary) as possible so as to not make your subjects conscious.
he carries a 14-85 lens with him and only a single body for most of the time
for him true art is which restores silence in him, i.e the photography should be self explanatory and should capture maximum detail
photos of beggars and old men are too cliched now. Photographers today should try to find something different
Learning photography should not be for any job, for self satisfaction and should be pursued with utter passion, like it is your god and religion.
Pictures which tell a lot of story are better than just pretty pictures
A good pictures should be worth a thousand words <-- but a 1000 words can be a lot of noise.
Today Nobody has the time to say "Wait a Minute!" Which means that instead of blinding clicking away you connect with the environment and then click. Have patience and nature will reward you with something which you could no see a moment before. You should choose your own moment if possible.
Human mind is programmed as such which does not allow it to follow a non traditional way. RR himself has spent a lot of time reprogramming himself.


Had also met Aryan at the class.

KrishnenduKes
05-08-2009, 07:36 PM
Brilliantly summed up. I wish you could go on... these are "Golden Words". I am left speechless. I simply love photojournalism! :)

Aryan
05-08-2009, 07:56 PM
I was fortunate enough to attend this 'Master Class with Raghu Rai' workshop. Loved the whole experience of the 2 hours+ that we had this workshop. He also showed us a few of his pictures on the big screen (Black and white and Panoramas), and gave a detailed description of the pictures (as to where he shot it, what was going through his mind while shooting the picture, what does the picture represent, etc.).

Also superb was the way he talked about photography as a whole. He talked about it more as a spiritual form than as a purely art-form. Many more pointers, suggestions, words were said by him. It was simply a brilliant workshop. I am looking forward to attending more such photography workshops in the future. :)

I didn't take my camera, hence no pictures but Sunny said he did capture a few pictures through his iPhone. I guess, he'll be posting them sometime; met him at the gates of the Aurobindo Institute after the workshop was over. :D

KrishnenduKes
05-08-2009, 07:58 PM
How many people attended the workshop?

Aryan
05-08-2009, 08:05 PM
How many people attended the workshop?
The auditorium was full (it was a small auditorium, really). It must have been somewhere around 55-60 people, I guess. :rolleyes:

Sunny
05-08-2009, 09:42 PM
Btw, Raghu Rai's first photo was that of a Donkey and it got published in an international journal.

Aryan
05-08-2009, 09:59 PM
Btw, Raghu Rai's first photo was that of a Donkey and it got published in an international journal.
Yes, I was amazed to know that was his first ever picture, clicked way back in the 1960s.

anvancy-(macro analyst)
05-09-2009, 10:38 AM
brilliant points indeed!

Bibudesh
05-14-2009, 12:01 PM
Pointers to always keep in mind as a photographer. Amazing work indeed.

@Sunny keep visiting and share such experience, it really keeps us moving.

shailay
05-29-2009, 04:25 PM
he carries a 14-85 lens with him and only a single body for most of the time





hmmm.....now that is wow!!!