Devangshu Dutta in Business Standard: “Unfortunately, even R.K. Laxman’s presence wasn’t enough for me to continue with my daily ritual of passing the paper [The Times of India] onto the raddi-wallah after that one brief moment of homage. “For a while, I continued to take it because I was rearing kittens—it was absorbent and useful…
Monthly Archives: October 2008
When all the cameras were looking the other way
Given the packs of still and video journalists who now hover over even ordinary news events, it is a mad scramble to get good visuals. And if the news is related to global terror then it’s a virtual stampede. If a photographer does manage to find a good frame in the melee, he is at…
World Press Photo invites entries for ’09 contest
PRESS RELEASE: World Press Photo invites professional photographers and photojournalists to enter the 2009 World Press Photo contest, the 52nd such contest being held by the Holland-based organisation. Entries can be sent by uploading images directly on the website from 1 December, or by mailing the entries by post or courier to World Press Photo, Jacob…
‘The camera, like the brush, is just a tool of art’
T.S. NAGARAJAN writes from Bangalore: Spencer Tunick is a New York photographer who prefers to be seen as an artist, not a photographer. He convinced 18,000 Mexicans to take their clothes off for him. The volunteers posed for Tunick at the Zacalo square in Mexico City on a Sunday morning, last year. “I just create…
‘An unruly and illegal expression of intolerance’
Shooting the media has become an acceptable bloodsport in India, especially if the message is contrary to the closely held views and beliefs of linguistic, parochial, chauvinistic, political, fundamentalist, extremist, militant, communal and casteist groups. And that’s not the full, unabridged list. The Hindu, the 138-year-old Madras newspaper with editions in all the four southern…
‘Get it right even if it means getting it last’
There’s nothing like competition to shake things up. With Mint, the business daily of the Hindustan Times group, making editorial ethics and integrity its unique selling proposition, the competition justifiably has ants in its pants. Witness this letter from the editorial head of a leading business paper to all staff. *** Dear all, In our…
Albert Einstein on the superficiality of journos
In a hand-written letter (in German) to a member of the public who had written to him criticising his special theory of relativity, Albert Einstein chides journalists for failing to understand one of his greatest scientific achievements: “The twaddle that the theory is extremely difficult to understand, is complete nonsense, spread out by superficial journalists.”…
And the winner of the best magazine cover is…
The New York magazine cover that won top honours at the American Magazine Congress last week. Judges cited the March 24 cover, which featured disgraced NY governor Eliot Spitzer, for its “directness, humour, and simplicity.” “The cover required no headlines. The image succeeds all by itself.”
37 telling photographs you can see in 3 minutes
Photographer James Nachtwey does his bit for XDR-TB, not a new motorcycle on the market but Extreme Drug Resistant Tuberculosis, a new form of an ancient disease that is killing 3 people every minute of the day in 49 countries, and becoming new pandemic. Also visit: http://www.xdrtb.org
Fellowships for journalists on climate change
PRESS RELEASE: The Climate Change Media Partnership invites journalists to apply for a climate change fellowship. Fellows will attend the UN climate change summit held in Poznan, Poland from December 1 to 12, 2008 and produce journalism to highlight climate change issues within their regions. The fellowship is open to journalists who live and work…
Why Indian netas dislike being probed on camera
CNN-IBN editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai on IBNlive.com: “Why are so many of our top politicians uncomfortable with the idea of being questioned on television? “Partly it is a reflection of a feudal and non-transparent political system that doesn’t feel the necessity to explain policy choices in an open forum. Unfortunately, unlike in the United States, television…
Chari, a Hindu lens legend, passes away. RIP.
sans serif records the passing away of K. Narayanachari, the dark room assistant who rose to be the chief photographer of The Hindu in Madras. He was 85 years old. An obituary in the paper notes: Acknowledged as one of India’s finest and most productive press photographers, Chari believed that imagination, innovation, and total dedication…
Hip-hop in India’s most happening city
DNA‘s commercial for its newest port of call, Bangalore.
The face of future media wars is a-changing
Paul Harris in The Observer, London: “In future, media wars will not be fought between newspapers, and perhaps not even between newspaper websites. They will be fought between internet brands, blogs, online video sharers, news aggregators, gossip sites and things as yet undreamt of. They will not be fought in one city nor one country,…
IJR 