India Today SUPPLEMENTS Shooting stars -September 26, 2007

SUPPLEMENTS
India Today SUPPLEMENTS Shooting stars

Minar Lamba
September 26, 2007
Updated 11:22 IST

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Click goes the camera. The lighting is perfect; the background is meticulous, the shutter speed and aperture just right. It’s like magic, painting a picture without any instruction in art. There are always two people in the picture, said Ansel Adams: one, the photographer and the other, the viewer. Taking cue, we delve and frame the men who frame the frame. The world may not fit into a 35-mm screen but it’s the best tool to capture a fashion moment and chronicle the annals of style. SIMPLY DELHI profiles five young turks of fashion photography.


Charudutt Chitrak
Perhaps it’s all in the genes. “My father Anup Chitrak topped the J. J. School of Art and also coached students there. When I deliberately failed the test there because I wanted to join the army it was a shock to him,” says Charudutt Chitrak, 33. Senior Chitrak’s disappointment was short-lived as the camera bug soon bit the young man, who had grown up surrounded by books on art, illustration and photography. A few promising pictures for an ad firm led to a career behind the camera. “I was among the lucky few to be among the last batch of students of T. Kashinath just before his demise,” says Chitrak. This was followed by an internship with Pradeep Dasgupta. The ride wasn’t easy. The first time Chitrak met Dasgupta, the latter flipped through his folio and said, “Yeh to char aane ka kaam hai. Main bhi karta hu. Show me work with a soul.” Dasgupta’s words stuck. For months, Chitrak haunted the bylanes of Chandni Chowk to capture frames that spoke to the viewer. Every time he thought he had done a good job, the pictures found their way into the trash can. “I thought, ‘Gosh! Three months on the road and what’s come out of it?’ So I stopped going to Dada,” he says. But then Dasgupta called. After the internship, Chitrak set out, assisting in various projects and films like the Valley of Flowers. But still, whenever Chitrak shows his portfolio he begins with the pictures in black and white that he shot during his apprenticeship. “I try to keep the soul alive in any fashion shoot. Dada’s words will stay on forever,” says the versatile photographer. With Robert Cappa and Richard Avedon as his inspirators, that isn’t a difficult feat.




Vishesh Verma
He picked up the camera to face his greatest angst: his fear of blindness. Myopic as a child, when other children were playing basketball, he was painting the canvas. “It was the fear of turning blind that helped me discover the world of photography,” says Vishesh Verma. Behind the camera, with the blind as his first subject, he overcame his shyness and therein blossomed the romance with the lens. With the lens in hand, it was easier confronting his fears. “When I was shooting the blind, I realised life doesn’t end if one loses one’s vision,” says Verma, 29, of his first encounter with the camera. The craft came naturally to him, but to hone his skills he headed to Farooq Chotia. Under the hands of the veteran, Verma became adept at playing with colour and light, and soon started out on his own. The ride to the top was relatively easy. He headed to Delhi to bag a shoot with Manish Arora, the hottest Indian kitsch export then. The client list grew with Rohit Bal, Tarun Tahiliani and the top end of the fash frat clicking on. Continuing with his trademark sensual photography, Verma believes in creating dreams. “I moved away from a journalistic approach to fashion photography. I was in a lift in New York and saw the liftman flipping through a luxury magazine. He couldn’t own the merchandise, but just the fact that he could enjoy it made me realise the importance of creating dreams. We all need someone to take us into the dream world, if only for a few seconds,” he says.


Vibhash Tiwari
Talk about mid-career switches and you could be talking about Vibash Tiwari, 28, who morphed from designer to photographer. Strongly into visuals and adept at creating clothes, the designer says: “I loved both the mediums, but I chose photography because it gave me a vast canvas.” That decision made, half a photography course at NIFT and stints in Mumbai with Atul Kasbekar and Farooq Chotia later, the lensman arrived on a cold winter morning in Delhi with no money, portfolio or accommodation, just a camera on which he had spent his life savings of Rs 1.5 lakh. He sold the camera for Rs 60,000 to create his portfolio. “Thankfully the portfolio turned out well and I started getting assignments. I was relieved that I would not have to head home to Jabalpur as a failure.” Known for his chic clean images, Tiwari says he loves fashion. That’s no surprise; it’s a love that reflects on his canvas. With this A-lister of the fashion world, it’s all about chance; taking them or creating them.


Anand Seth
Here is a photographer who believes in ‘no lights, no camera but all the action’. Anand Seth, one of the first few entrants into the glam business nearly a decade ago, still doesn’t own a camera or lights in a world that’s all about the latest haute gadgets and bling instruments. Ten years on, Seth continues to create a niche with his experimental style doing avant garde shoots for top-notch designers such as Rohit Bal, J.J. Valaya, Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna and corporate houses like Samsung, Bacardi, NIIT, Gillette and Chevrolet. Seth’s style has evolved over the years, with the 35-year-old moving away from studio shoots to more realistic fashion. A trademark picture captures a sultry beauty against the mundane. It’s the stark contrast of fantasy and reality all in a single frame. “It’s all about capturing the mood at that moment,” he says. So it’s little wonder that this photographer conntinues to work even when he’s running high temperature, just stopping to pop antipyretics. Ask him about it, and he smiles the question away. They call him an eccentric and unpredictable but maintain that nothing can stop the non-conformist genius once the stage is set. Says Seth, “I don’t depend on the camera or lights to catch an expression; it’s gut instinct.” He’s never interned with the veterans; instead he’s wooed the trade through the hit and trial method. “I’m still nervous before a shoot,” he confesses, endearingly.


Tarun Vishwa
His is a story of grit and determination. The lab assistant from Udaipur now commands the lab. He picked up the camera when he was 18, clicked a few pictures that turned out well, and got hooked. He moved to Delhi and joined a photo lab. “I would keep questioning the photographers who came to process their pictures. One of them got ticked off and told me if I was so interested I should become one,” narrates Tarun Vishwa. That was the turning point. He coaxed photographer Tarun Khiwal to meet him. “I was shivering while showing him my amateur portfolio. I felt as if I was meeting the Prime Minister.” Khiwal didn’t have a vacancy for him initially but later called Vishwa and asked him to join. Weighed down by the guilt of giving up a regular salary for a Rs 1,200 stipend but still ecstatic, Vishwa gave it a try. “I had to cut costs. I had to take a bus, cut down on the luxury buying of branded goods to make ends meet. After four months, I quit only to rejoin and stay put for the next five years. Those were the learning years of my life. Then one day, Khiwal literally kicked me out saying I had to start on my own. I still remember walking out of the studio, penniless, with nowhere to go,” reminisces Vishwa, who is known for his ability to recreate the magic of another era. As he walked out of Khiwal’s studio he saw a soiled paper packet lying on the floor with his picture on it. It was of an unemployment programme that Khiwal had shot earlier where Vishwa had filled in when the model didn’t turn up. “My situation was the same. Unemployed. I still have that soiled envelope with me.” he reveals. But that’s an old story now. Though the take off was rough, the ride was smooth soon enough. From his first assignment of Rs 6,000 to his current fee of Rs 60,000, the lensman has come a long way within two years. A host of clients, fashion magazines and designers knock at his door for that chic stylised classy shoot. It’s this 32-year-old’s can-do attitude that has lived on, as he rightly puts it, “Everything can be done.”