A brief chat with photo journalist Ph. Santosh
IFP: Congratulation on your recent exhibition.
Ph.S: Thank you.
IFP: Tell us how you became friend with camera?
Ph.S: The photo studio which I run now was once a book store. I used to sell books and magazines. Chinese magazines were very popular then. ‘China Sports’, ‘China Pictorial’, they come with nice pictures. Their paper quality was the finest. I have a fascination with those pictures. Those pictures are captured through a medium called camera. I wanted to create pictures like them.
IFP: You bought a camera then?
Ph.S: Not really. I belonged to a family with limited means. I was sure I would get beaten if I asked my parents to buy me a camera. Click 3 was the first camera I had. It was a simple 16mm one. Though I had a camera in hand, I can’t do anything with it without the film. Buying raw films and going through the lab for the final print again cost money. I had to save money of what little I earned.
IFP: Your first break was the North East Sun.
Ph.S: Right. My cousin, Pradip Phanjoubam, was already into journalism working in Delhi then. He is also a photography buff. He gave me a camera. It must be Yasica, the Japanese made, I supposed. One of the best of those days, I started shooting with that. But it had some technical problems. I had to go to the repairing center regularly. Photo journalism in Manipur was unheard then. For most of the public events, I was the lone cameramen covering it. My arrival at the venue was equivalent to a VIP’s arrival. Oh! NE SUN, this way – this way, please. There was absolute freedom for me to shoot from any angle. Now we have dozens of cameras covering an event. Of course, wider participation is welcome. Good that I have a height, a bit above the Manipuri average. I can take position from a workable distance when all of them have swarmed in. (He smiles)
IFP: We have seen from your exhibition. In your thirty years of experience as photographer, you have covered a wide range of subjects. Can you tell us which one of them is your favorite?
Ph.S: That’s a difficult question. I can’t really figure out. But yes, one thing that I love to shoot for all time is children. I love their naturalness. If you shoot adults, they will make all kinds of poses. I like to shoot children from rural areas; urban born children are all busy with computer and mobile phones. I love the hills. In fact, I have a personal bonding withChandel. I came to know an Anal student leader, who is no more now. He invited me to his village to shoot for a public event. From then onwards I was offered to shoot all kinds of events in Chandel.
IFP: How about news photography?
Ph.S: That’s also a challenge. You have to take a certain amount of risk. Say, while covering an agitation, the photo has to speak for itself. You can add all kinds of captions, but a picture has meaning in itself that speaks a language. You only have to wait for the moment, and of course, the right angle. News coverage took me to different places far and wide. When we begin, there was no computer. Newspapers were printed without photos. I remember, once I was taking shot of a lady traffic police in its nascent days. I was caught by the police. They asked me all sorts of questions. Why are you taking photos? What is your purpose? I tried to explain that I am a photo journalist. That it would be published in a magazine called the NE Sun. But they were not convinced. Such was the awareness then.
IFP: Besides, we find beautiful landscape photography as well.
Ph.S: Oh! I fall in love with the sunset at Tamenglong. It’s stunning. I mean, most of the hills have a beauty of their own. My photo which was first published at the front page of New York Times was of Loktak. But it was never complete without those two girls rowing on a boat, with containers, looking for clean water in the middle of the lake. And those young girls in the hills, who have to walk miles to fetch water, they are all meaningful.
IFP: Well, tell us more about your experience in news photography. Thirty years’ experience is really something.
Ph.S: Two communal riots that I covered, its memory is still fresh today. The Thangjing plane crash, the Khengjoi visit to the rebels’ hideout, visits to the camps of the then unified NSCN. Pradip and me, we went to cover an ambush of the Assam Rifles. He had come down to work in Manipur. We met challenging circumstances. Things have changed a lot today.
IFP: One big change is the transition from SLR to DSLR.
Ph.S: Absolutely. I will be honest. Now with the DSLR, the zeal for photography has dwindled, that’s my personal view. When we were working only on manual adjustment, you can’t be sure of what you have taken. The urge to see the result from the lab is unexplainable. Because you can’t immediately see the result as with the DSLR today, manual photography is totally different from that. You have to control the focus, read the exposure, speed etc. now, it’s all automatic. You need little thinking and preparation. Yet, we have to go with the new technology. We are smart at getting used to something very quickly.
IFP: Family support is really important in your kind of job. How is the picture at home?
Ph.S: My wife is very supportive. She understands the demand of my job. I travel a lot. She is there to take care of the home front in my absence. The exhibition had cost a lot of money. She helped me out from her savings.
IFP: That’s lovely. Share with us, what are the qualities required to be a good photographer?
Ph.S: Qualities, one can develop and nurture. But besides knowing the basic skill, a photographer has to feel. I believe there is poetry within the four frames of a photograph. You have to see; you have to feel the poetry. Only then you can make your picture speak with thousand words. Everybody has a camera in their hand now. It has become more of a fashion today to flaunt cameras. Young rich people seem to be more proud of the price of their cameras then their work. Well, I do see young passionate faces. That’s good enough. But at the end of the day; it is neither the price nor the passion. It’s how you see and feel.
IFP: Thank you for sparing your time with us. We would love to spend more time with you someday.
Ph.S: Hey, I am still part of the IFP team in many ways. Drop in anytime you like.