If you believe that you can do it or you can’t , in both the cases you are absolutely right.
Believing in ourselves is the best we can do, rest is... luck may be. We need to train our mind in such a way that things will happen according to us. But trust me people will still think you are just lucky enough to bag the trophy when you succeed. No one will be able to see or know what you did in the green room.
I will just share a couple of incidents. As a photojournalist, I have always, wished for is a wrong phrase but expected great mishaps to unfold in front of me so that I can get a good shot, a great story. Great photographers are saints they don’t do such things. Fortunately no such mishaps happened in front of me but I was definitely fortunate enough to photograph things that I have framed in my mind in the form of candid shots. Though, the meaning of the term candid is totally different in this new wedding photography era.
The year was 2014, my first and last year with the PIB card at the Parliament. BJP had won the general election defeating the grand old party, Congress. I was waiting outside with other fellow photographers for some politicians to turn up. It is very boring, but when you have the PIB card (for the first time) in your pocket making things easier. My idle mind was thinking about an ideal photo. What if someone comes in with a photo of the new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi while another person leaves with that of the former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. Everything in one single frame, absurd. Believe me, no one came with the photo of Modi but a person was leaving with a portrait of Manmohan Singh from the Parliament indeed. Since it was in my mind for long, I managed to click this photo before many experienced ones.
Again coming to the year 2014, inauguration of the new building of the Environment Ministry. We all were waiting for The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh to arrive and cut the red ribbon. Can’t be more boring than this. The PM was supposed to climb a flight of stairs for the ribbon. I was thinking, what if I could get a photo of him with the red ribbon on his eyes. By the way the general election was by the corner and the PM was in deep controversy for hell lot of scams during his regime. It could be a photo for the news. In a high security assignment, you can’t move, forget about getting a desired shot, unless lucky. Believe me I have managed to click his photo, one with the red ribbon on his eyes and another on his mouth.Â
In Mumbai, BMC starts cleaning the drains and canals only before the monsoon. One such cleaning was going on in the narrow lane besides our office. A man was inside the manhole, cleaning the shit. I have seen thousands of such photos clicked by my colleagues. I was not interested. I was getting very ugly shadows of the passerby people. I was thinking what if I could use those unwanted shadows. After giving it a time, I got a man’s shadow that kind of walked into my frame. But he was placed in such a way that the manhole appeared to be the head of that man’s shadow.
Once I went inside the 10 Janpath, for an assignment. I was waiting at the reception before the second level of frisking was to begin, along with the other colleagues .I could recall some 6ft tall sturdy SPG guys welcoming us instead of stunning ladies at the reception. It was an unquestionably boring environment that caught my attention unlike the other days. So we were just waiting like excited kids for the gate to open and run inside, as if coming first involved winning a trophy. I was very excited to be able to enter one of the most important buildings in the country . As usual I was looking around for something unexpected or unusual to happen, I was shutter ready as always..... God knows, ready for what ? A portrait of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on the wall beside a TV set which was playing some mundane news. Suddenly, a video clip of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared on TV. It seemed as if he too was looking towards the portrait of Rajiv Gandhi. How could I miss that moment ? Narendra Modi and Rajiv Gandhi in the same frame and that too at 10 Janpath. I was not merely lucky to have taken the shot at the correct time but shutter ready to have been able to capture the unexpected.
Always expect the most unexpected scene and you might create a scene that remains in the heart of millions. Who and why the hell would someone expect those Indian Cricket stars to look at that sneaked out underwear of that autograph seeker?
In all the above mentioned situations you might think that I was just lucky. No, those unexpected things were in my already scripted thought in my brain, I had to put the right Lego block in the right place at the right time.
Things are very bad in this corona time. Believe in yourself, wait for that unexpected moment (obviously the positive one as nothing more worse can happen at this juncture). Wait for the right moment. Keep calm. Every time things won't fall in place. But when it will, it will undo all the bad things.
So trust yourself instead of any random guy who will charge 2k to teach you art of living.
Text and Photos : ARIJIT SEN
Edited by : RAJASHREE SEN