Taaza-Khabar: A Nation of Newspaper Readers
Wherever he went in India, photojournalist Sanjay Austa, found people in rural and urban areas devouring the daily newspaper. Even in metros, where a large number of people use public transport. It was a stark contrast to what he had found abroad, in countries like the US, where people preffered reading books.
Through an Art Student’s Eye.
Its always intriguing how the audience interpret your work- whether its a poem, a book, a film or photographs. Surfing the internet, I found this video presentation on three of my photo-essays by an art student in the US.
Royal Memories in Rampur: The Erstwhile Town of the Nawabs
Rampur is a common name, shared by dozens of villages and towns across India, but when I was growing up, there was always only one Rampur for me. It was the place where the Kashi Vishwanath Express train from Delhi halted briefly in the late afternoon. Where long, lazy summers were spent eating tub-loads of mangoes from my grandmother’s orchard. Where kites were chased, and cousins slept in an inner courtyard cooled by water from the tube well.
Road Journey into Tawang- Arunachal Pradesh
A couple of years ago I made my first trip into the North East. I visit Manipur, Nagaland and Meghalaya. I thought Arunachal Pradesh deserved special visit. Arunachal is the only Indian state that still boasts of over 80 percent forest cover. Has some of the most spectacular bird species (150 of them) and rare mammals including the red panda and the snow leopard.
So in 2011 after wrapping up a shoot in Guwahati, I hired a taxi for a 5 day excursion into Arunachal. I had limited time and I had to pick a destination in the state. I chose Tawang. A video of a road journey into a paradise of far, far away.
A Manali Taxiwalla’s Monologue.
The wealth of information you can get from your cabbie can beat any fancy guide book hands down. No matter where I travel, I always needle my taxi-driver for info and am rewarded with a lowdown on local gossip, survival tips, inside knowledge on tourist scams and much more.
Interview in Kyoorius Magazine
Sanjay Austa is a name to be reckoned with in the world of photojournalism in India. Austa started out as a journalist and gradually switched to photography. His first assignment as a photojournalist was an ardous expedition to Kanchenjunga where he documented the indian army’s climb to the summit.
Austa asserts that for a photojournalist the story behind a photo is every thing, ”Most of the photo-essays I work on are stories which I think are important to me…
An Interview with Documentary Photographer Sanjay Austa
Sanjay Austa is a Delhi based documentary photographer who is widely published in International Media including the Wall Street Journal, National Geographic Traveller, The Sunday Guardian, Departures, Centurion, Mint-WSJ, Outlook Traveller etc. His photo-feature on the 1984 anti-Sikh Delhi riots was exhibited in California and UK by various human rights groups in 2009 and 2010 respectively.
Jumping Heights: A Leap of Faith at Rishikesh.
‘’ It’s a life changing experience. You will not feel the same way about yourself after it’’, their voices ring in my ears as I rock softly in the evening train to Rishikesh. No I am not going for a dip at the Ganga and the accompanying mumbo jumbo. Though for over a millennia ‘life-change’ seekers have taken the same journey to flock to the ghats of his ancient holy town.
Nainital- India’s Lake District.
Many years ago when I visited Nainital for the first time , it was a relief to see the lake so polluted . If you belong to a hill station like me, you tend to look at another hill-station with a sense of competition. My hometown, Shimla, I happily concluded, is after all the best hill-station in India.
But on a recent visit to Nainital, I was astonished to see the Naini Lake far from the dump it was many years ago. It was all spruced up and crystal clean. There was no longer any debris floating on its surface and the horrid smell had gone. I had to reluctantly admit that Nanital is possibly India’s most beautiful hill station.
A Week in the Arctic
Whenever I get an invitation to visit a cold place I am generally not too excited. I was born in the foothills of the Himalayas (Himachal Pradesh) therefore snow, mountains, and high altitudes generate feelings of home not wanderlust. But an invitation to visit the Arctic was different. I had never crossed the 66 degree latitude for one and the opportunity to relive your childhood storybook fantasies of reindeers-rides and huskies sledges is too hard to resist.
Flirting With History. The Ruins of Farrukhnagar
But all this seems distant on the short drive along double-barrelled Basai Road, which makes its way through the villages of Dhankot and Chandu and past Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary, undulating through multi-coloured fields of mustard, wheat and marigolds. The drive is a pleasure; the road is in good condition and lined with fruit sellers peddling seasonal wares right from the orchards. Farmland lines the road, retreating into gentle hillocks that mark the beginning of the Aravalli Hills. Farrukhnagar appears in a traffic jam of lorries, buses and cycles resembling most small Indian towns until one reaches the old quarter with its distinctive Mughal architecture.
Are all Editors Visually Illiterate?
Celebrated Indian Photographer Raghu Rai has often said that newspaper and magazine editors are visually illiterate. He should know. Rai spent much of his photography career working for newspapers and magazines. I started my career as a journalist too and never understood the importance of photography in a paper. I especially did not understand why my newspaper would spend so much money sending a photographer with me on travel assignments. He just has to press the button I thought.
How Photographers get their Shots and Miss the Picture.
Does photography make you see more – as is popularly believed – or does it sometimes make you wear blinkers to the world around you? Photography of course should make you see and absorb more and this is what we all believe but I think it can do just the opposite. I feel photographers are so busy with the visual assimilation of what is at hand that they don’t (and perhaps can’t) care much about what it is they are photographing. They are not so much interested in understanding the subject as they are in `capturing’ it.
From Passion To Profession
Every assignment brings its own challenges. The trick is to satisfy the client who hires you without compromising on what you think are good pictures. As a photojournalist I am mostly photographing strangers. The challenge for me is to make them open up to me so I can get a unique perspective to their lives.
Jim Corbett National Park- You Don’t come here for the Tigers.
But it is not just my resort. Joining the chorus are many others. I can hear the distant boom of the music (Sheela Ki Jawani) across the forest valley well after light out. Tourists drink and dance till wee hours of the night. And in the morning they don’t care too much if they miss the safari.
White Sands and Hot Spices of the Zanzibar Archipelago
Most African Safari junkies round off their African bush adventures by dipping their feet in the waters of one of the white-sand beaches of the Zanzibar Archipelago. But I headed straight for Zanzibar even before I saw my first thomson’s gazelle. I had just completed an exhausting shoot in Tanzania and there is nothing like the Islands of the Zanzibar Archipelago to rest your body and soul. It was meant to be a quite holiday but I just could not resist picking up my camera again to photograph the quaint islands, the placid beaches, and its warm people.
Wide Angled in Majuli, Assam
If you are photographing in Assam for the first time like I was, you would do well not to carry a heavy long-angled zoom. Everything is so vast here that it wont fit your frame unless you carry a wide-angled lens in your camera bag. In Kaziranga National Park the rhinos often breach that invisible man- animal line and come close enough to ram your gypsy turtle. For this reason they send an armed guard with every three gypsies to scare the rhinos with blank shots.
Sunrise in Kanyakumari
As a travel photographer I had become accustomed to being the first one to arrive at any landmark at any place I visited. I would have taken the best shots with the early morning sun much before the first tourists began to troop in. But when I stepped out of my hotel in Kanyakumari at six in the morning, I was shocked to find a sea of humanity already there at the beach. Groggy-eyed I tried to look for a vantage position to photograph the rising sun. But every nook and cranny was taken and every tourist was smugly poised with his camera.
Arabian Nights in Bedouin Tents- Wadi Rum
If you visit Wadi Rum in Jordan, a night’s halt is a must . Not just for the stars that shine so lustrously in the desert sky but for the exotic and authentic Arabian experience it accords. Thankfully there are no hotels in this desert so the only way you can have a lay over here is in bedouin-like camps. From the food to the interiors, the camps compete with each other in giving the best bedouin experience.
Rock-climbing in Wadi Rum- Jordan
Known as `Valley of the Moon’ Wadi Rum in Jordan is not just a nature lover’s moonscape. Its also a great place for sport aficionadas. The sheer cliffs and escarpments of Wadi Rum desert offer enough challenge to the hardiest of climbers. No wonder serious mountaineering and trekkers flock to these huge sandstone mountains all the year around.
Narkanda: Gateway to Apple Country
The true getaways in Himachal Pradesh now lie beyond its congested capital. And every year more and more tourists are using Shimla only as a night’s stopover before heading out to these greener, quieter , wilder places beyond.
Narkanda is one such small town. It is a hinterland deep in Shimla district which offers visitors not only peace but a chance to explore the beautiful apple orchard countryside.
Wadi Rum- The Arabic Desert Moonscape
If Petra is Jordan’s historical heritage, Wadi Rum is its Arabian Nights. Its in Wadi Rum where folklore meets imagination. No matter which part this small peaceful Middle-Eastern country you travel in, all reference points are invariably of the desert. Its just as well. Over thousands of centuries, the life of the Jordanians have been shaped by the deserts. Almost seventy five percent of Jordan is desert-like, much of it uninhibited. The civilization is squeezed to a narrow strip around river Jordan and the Dead Sea.
Hazrat Nizamuddin and its Monuments
Nizamuddin’s shrine like most sufi shrines attracts not only muslims but a fair share of christians, hindus and sikhs as well. Coupled with its tradition of music Sufi shrines such as Nizamuddin are also on the radar of fanatics who feel music is against Islam.
Jodhpur the Sun City, Rajasthan
Imagine a man thinking of making a 347 room luxurious villa for himself out of the misery of the people he is supposed to serve. Surprisingly the Maharaja is glorified to this day for this `noble’ gesture. Today Umaid Bhawan Palace is divided between a luxury hotel , a museum and the residence of the Maharajas’s successors. It still remains the largest private residence in the world.