my papa managed a studio for nearly two decades. venus studio was one of the premier ones of the time. we had a lot of american and european customers who found great happiness in taking lots pf pictures which defined their religious and socio-cultural activities like baptism, first communion, family get-togethers, weddings, picnics, travels....it was the era of photo films and dark-room creativity. it was costly to produce the prints and photography was considered an art. the studio was situated at a prime spot, on salwa road leading to the golden chrome window-shaded hotel ramada. papa, amma, me and my younger bro stayed behind the studio amidst a lot of greenery with a vine creeper taking centrestage.
babu uncle was our photographer. his studio had curtains of red, green and blue. there was also a fog-filled background which encouraged cutomers to snap a family photo. a dressing room with make-up props made people to puff up their faces with powder and then it was upto babu uncle to advice them how halloween-ish they would look once the refelectors snap. across the studio was a wall depicting some of the best photos taken by the crew. there were also some sfx photos like children in a champagne glass, inside a blooming sunflower and so on.
the room that always entr
igued me was the dark-room. the room where the birth of a photo takes place. the smell of photo filters, negatives, the chemicals, the machines... are still fresh in me. all those years, i was interested in the mechanics that took place after a snap was taken. i was never interested in the art that went behind the creation of the image.
a chance to see an exhibition of rain photographs taken by victor george, the resident photographer of malayala manorama bought a change. i was able to see the passion behind the art. that is when i started to frequent photo exhibitions. i took out the photographs that papa had taken and started to admire them. the eye-capturing snaps that came in the dailies inspired me to take up the art as a hobby.
i surfed the net like a man on a mission. read all i could about aperture, shutter speed, ISO, contrast, exposure, composition etc and etc. finally i bought a nikon D90.
