Journal Image » Culture

You are Invited to Melange – Solo Photo Exhibition by Debanjan

Ranjay Mitra — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:54:48 +0000

One of my best friend & a great photographer, Debanjan is having his solo exhibition at Melange.

His photographs will be showcased at the Photographer’s Gallery in Kolkata from the 27th of December through the 31st.

Debanjan has been a prolific photographer. And besides his job at an IT MNC, he finds time to take to the streets with his cameras.

He is a traditional photographer. In the sense that he still works with his film SLRs. He has a good eye for both monochrome & color images.

This solo exhibition is a milestone – that it is possible to have a full time job that takes up 15 hours of your time everyday, every week of the year, and yet excel in an art where your heart lies.

In his own words:

try to look at the beautiful world in both Colour as well as Black & White.. I try to see beatuy, struggle, simplicity and peace in all that I try to capture through my camera.. it’s an ongoing journey and am thoroughly enjoying it

On behalf of Debanjan, I am extending this invitation to all my readers. You could also follow his activities on flickr where he posts very regularly.

Candid Street Portraits from Kolkata – Using Props to Spice Up Portraits

Ranjay Mitra — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 02:16:35 +0000

Sometimes street portraits could appear very dull & monotonous. Though portraying daily life is the essence of street images, props are often required to spicy things up a bit.

I shall talk about props in a bit. In this picture, two devotees of Hindu Goddess Kali are spending a quiet moment on a joint. They spent an hour, intermittently smoking & sharing niceties & talking of various philosophical aspects of life!

The device they use is called a “Chhileem” in the local language & very similar to a local cigar. Rudimentary in construction, this tiny device could deliver a serious shock to anyone not used to the raw smoke of tobacco.

They were a little hesitant for me to take their pictures. Their concern came from being ill-advertised to the younger generation. Although smoking from these “Chhileems” and similar cigars are restricted to finding the special type of tobacco, they are widely spread amongst the devotees’ population along the Ganges.

While doing a few studio shots in Connecticut, the model, an old gentleman had given me a great deal of information on props for studio shots using Cigars

He had mentioned some famous Smoke Shops that feature some of the finest Cohiba cigars, Macanudo cigars and all other major cigar brands. These are some of the finest & available online at http://www.famous-smoke.com/. So anytime I have a studio photo shoot with a cigar smoking model, I know where to order some!

The image above is shot on a Nikon D200 with on camera speedlight set on -2 ev & using a wide angle lens.

New York City street musician – Vincent

Ranjay Mitra — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 07:59:49 +0000

From: photoduniya.com

Although busking is not so popular in New York City, you still find a few of them occasionally. Vincent has been playing the pan for over 25 years and about a decade in New York City. Originally from Trinidad, he doesn’t waste a wink talking to you while keeping the beat! On my request, he played the Jamaican Farewell. I had first heard it on the pan in San Francisco by another street musician.

I shall post more on Vincent in my later blogs. This picture was taken on a hand held Nikon D200 with fill flash & is part of an extended documentary on Street Musicians. Read more here.

I have used a watermark on the above image. I apologize for the inconvenience but I am using it since the time I found out that Musicnation.com and a few others have violated copyrights & copied my images while being very insensitive to the musicians all in the name of driving more traffic to their websites.

Musicnation.Com – copycat & desperate to survive?

Ranjay Mitra — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:58:25 +0000

I have had my pictures copied by many people. Most of them had either the courtesy to either let me know or to refer to my post. I was really shocked & rather insulted when http://musicnation.com/ (MusicNation), thought it wise to send me a link of a place where they have just renamed one of my images.

To add to the whole act of a desperate crook, they even went ahead and wrote obnoxious statement on Craig. No wonder they had no reference to what they were writing. Here is a link to Craig’s image on the post on Music Nation – http://mnmedia.musicnation.com/Blog/2008/080124/oldmanclarinet.jpg

Here is the original post on my blog, made on15th August 2007.

http://nonphotographer.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/san-francisco-street-artists-clarinet-by-craig/

I could think of the people behind this website of Musicnation.com to be no less than cheap and have no respect for either the music or the musician. Here is the post I am referring to – http://musicnation.musicnation.com/blog/2008/02/street-musicians-part-ii & the last image on that post is that of Craig.

They don’t realize that we could easily make a watermark on these images. However, we do not do that so that the readers get to see the image at its best!

New York experiments with Street Music with Joshua Bell

Ranjay Mitra — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:22:10 +0000

From: photoduniya.com

This article was published a while back in April 2007. Washing Post, NY wanted to do a small experimental study on busking and had set up Joshua Bell to play some of the classics on his violin. The experiment was to study the impact on busy people walking by as well as the by standers.

The Le’Enfant plaza is an ordinary station, with either a mediocre or slightly above the average crowd most of the time. However, this experiment does bring the light a few things in my opinion.

there are extremely talented people who play on the streets – my project in San Francisco was an eye opener
while not many people “seem” to care, there are a lot more who do, in the music, in the art. Most of the time it is just the hour that matters
people do help as much as they can, either a quarter or a bill. I have known an incident in San Francisco where a busker was mugged off his accordion. His fellow buskers got together, pulled up some cash and got him a second hand accordion in a few weeks time. Such incidents could be rare for statistical purposes, but does occur. It is also difficult to keep measuring these incidents of goodwill
music and art is universal and so are the artists. They are a very small but critical part of the cultural face of the city

Here is the link to the post. It also has a very short video embedded which is, in my opinion, a poor way to undermine the whole art and concept of busking.

San Francisco street musician – French Christmas carols

Ranjay Mitra — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 05:44:59 +0000

From: photoduniya.com

Mitchel is back in his usual place in Union Square, not ready to miss the Christmas in San Francisco. Taking up a place between wreath and light decorated side street, Mitchel entertained the shoppers and tourists with his melody. His soft French accent is noticeable. Although French, he sings carols in English, Spanish and more in French.

Traveling with his music the world over, Mitchel is always back for Christmas at this place year after year.

Mitchel playing the carols @ photoduniya.com

The image is taken on handheld Nikon D200 on Lexar pro media card. More images will be uploaded on the Projects section of Photoduniya.com.

San Francisco street saxophone player – Henri

Ranjay Mitra — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 02:59:57 +0000

From: photoduniya.com

After fifteen years of a busy life with jobs and family, Henri has come a full circle back to first love – music. Playing since he was nine he can play most of the wind instruments, but he has a special liking for this particular horn. Now that he has enough to bank on for elementary pleasures, Henri plays on the streets and makes his living with his saxophone.

Henri playing the saxophone @ photoduniya.com

The image is taken on handheld Nikon D200 on Lexar pro media card. More images will be uploaded on the Projects section of Photoduniya.com.

San Francisco street photography – chess players

Ranjay Mitra — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 02:55:36 +0000

From: photoduniya.com

It is a regular scene – chess players competing against one another for fun. Seated along various parts of Market Street this is a part of the daily city life. So much so that the chess boards are taped permanently to the tables so that they could be set up or tucked away very fast.

San Francisco Chess Player @ photoduniya.com

The image is taken on hand held Nikon D200. More images will be uploaded on the Projects section of Photoduniya.com.

San Francisco street musician – Jacob Williams on the keyboard

Ranjay Mitra — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 06:30:38 +0000

From: photoduniya.com

Jacob usually plays the keyboard in and around the Westfield Mall on Market. A veteran, he is widely traveled and plays a lot of wind and pipe music. An unfortunate turn of events caused him to go through gum surgery and that quite disabled him from playing the saxophone and the trumpet. It is easy to spot this frail gentleman flaunting his Vietnam medal and a “Kill ‘em All” tag around his neck.

Jacob in San Francisco @ photoduniya.com

With the holidays approaching and each of the street musician bringing out their favorite, or should I say unique makeup, Jacob was happy to be behind the stars and the stripes that he has defended all along. More images will be uploaded on the Projects section of Photoduniya.com.

San Francisco Fortune Cookie factory

Ranjay Mitra — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:25:50 +0000

From: photoduniya.com

Since the early 1960s, the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie factory has been shipping hand made fortune cookies to San Francisco. The lady here, one of the three workers, is making chocolate flavored fortune cookies. She makes them one by one – as the machine bakes them, she has to pick up the half done cookies, fold them, put the fortune inside and cool them off. All done in a span of less than ten seconds per cookie.

San Francisco Fortune Cookie Factory @ photoduniya.com

Photographed with hand held Nikon D200 and Speedlight on Lexar pro media.