Meet the mentor: Harikrishna Katragadda

Biography:
Harikrishna Katragadda studied engineering and physics from IIT Chennai before he went to graduate with a master’s degree in Photojournalism from the University of Texas at Austin. He was a staff photographer with Mint newspaper in New Delhi between 2006-2009.

His work has appeared in Hindustan Times, India Today, Business Today, Frontline, Stern, Geo,Missio Aktuel, Internazionale, Nytimes.com, Greenpeace and BBC. He was awarded theNational Foundation for India fellowship in 2012 for his personal documentary project on Malana.
His work has been exhibited at the Goethe Institute and the India Habitat Center in New Delhi.Based in Bombay, he is an independent photographer and the contributing photo editor for Fountain Ink.

Meet the mentor :Vivek Kunwar

By education, Vivek did his software engineering and later completed his masters in business Administration from MDI in India. Before becoming a photographer he worked with one of the largest business advisory firms in the world. He left behind his corporate career to take his love for visual arts to a more serious level thereby creating images and motion-pictures for corporate and fashion clients. Some of his clientele includes likes of KFC, Nissan, Lotto, Ilk, GRFL and Glaxo Smithkline .

He honed his skills of creating powerful and compelling pictures while globetrotting and working as a photojournalist with The Hindustan Times (India). Vivek is known for his elaborate use of artificial lighting in both photography and motion-pictures. He also specializes in underwater photographers in the region.

Vivek ‘s currently based in Gurgaon, is pursuing long term commercial projects and will be working with us starting May .

 

Selected Student work at Bamboo Bazaar Outing,Bangalore

Photo Credit – Vineetha

Photo Credit – Swathi

 

Photo Credit – Swathi

Photo Credit – Revathi

 

Photo Credit – Revathi

Photo Credit – Rekha

 

Photo Credit – Rekha

Photo Credit – Prem

 

Photo Credit – Pooja

Photo Credit – Meenakshi

 

Photo Credit – Meenakshi

Photo Credit – Mani

 

Photo Credit – Mani

Photo Credit – Gayatri

 

Photo Credit – Gayatri

Photo Credit – Gayatri

 

Photo Credit – Bhavani M

Photo Credit – Bhavani M

 

Photo Credit – Bhavani K

Photo Credit – Bhavani K

 

 

Meet the ACT students, we know them a bit better now !!

Mani, 14yrs, wants to be a painter, likes photography but loves painting. Photography will remain a hobby for now !!

Vineetha, 18yrs, joining a leading Multi National Bank next week, photography will remain a hobby !!

Gayatri, 16yrs, wants to get into the fashion industry, wants to learn photography to do exactly that !!

Bhavani K, 17 yrs , Wants to be a lawyer , Wants to learn photography so that she can take pictures of crime and terrorists !!

 

Rekha, 17 yrs, wants to be a Montessori teacher, wants to become a good photographer and teach basics of photography as well some day !!

Meenakshi, 17yrs, Wants to be a professional photographer, joined classes to understand basics of photography and figure how she could pursue this full time. Will choose Arts for her degree.

Divya, 15yrs, wants to be an English teacher, wants to take up photography as a hobby

Swathi, 19yrs, Wants to learn accounts and be a bank manager but also wants to continue photography as a serious hobby

 

Pooja, 18yrs , interested in the hospitality industry, feels photography can contribute to the cause and wants to pursue photography as a serious hobby

Revathi, 17yrs, photography bug bit her a yr back, feels this workshop has made up her mind, wants to take up photography professionally

 

Bhavani, 16yrs, loves math and accounts, started taking pics a yr back and loved it …photography will be a serious hobby !!

Prem, 18yrs, wants to be a cricketer or a computer scientist, still figuring out what he wants to do… Photography will be a hobby for now !

 

Photo of the day

Student image by Bhavani M .
Workshop center : Ashwini Charitable Trust @HCC Bangalore 2013
Mentor : Samyukta Lakshmi

Sebastiao Salgado: GENESIS

His new book is out after 8 years of project focussing on Earth and Environment. It looks spectacular, especially the signed editions . More details here

Week 2 Update – Ashwini CHaritable Trust workshop by HCC

Its time to step it up a bit… if week 1 was about the basics then Week 2 will be all about interpreting pictures through storytelling, understanding lighting and capturing portraits !!

Workshop Week 2 feedback on basic concepts of photography like leading lines

 

Workshop Week 2 feedback on basic concepts of photography like Portraits

 

Pictured above, Sujata Mukherjee from ACT who enabled this collaboration between ACT and HCC.

After reviewing last weeks assignment the class left for an outbound assignment with lighting and Samyukta also showed them some work of Arnold Newman… and were given an assignment to do portraits of each other. Let’s see what they come up with, we for one, cant wait to see what they spring up !!

Ashwini Charitable Trust Workshop by HCC

21st April 2013 will always be a red letter day for HCC. It was the day we started our first paid workshop with our first on boarded mentor after becoming an official registered social enterprise. We  thank Samyukta Lakshmi (pic below) for coming on board.

So we have started on this very interesting journey and we cant wait to see the work of the 10 girls and 2 boys .. Have a look at the group below….

Here are some pictures from Week 1 where Samyukta took them through basics of photography and discussed students previous work…

 

Mentors, photography workshops and relative actions

So,

a much needed post….

In a span of three months we got the company registered, got paper work done, bank account opened, did with an initial business model, got contracts done, and upped the social media quotient ( read our fb page and twitter account) . During this space we got upset with each other, questioned a lot, were critical and debated quite a bit on strategy. And we mean literally: right from whether having a twitter handle (as everyone at HCC is social media averse but its business), to registering it as what type of entity, choosing a bank, which photographers: do we go for quality, do we go for professionalism, do we go for enthusiasm ,do we go for a mix and so on .

from our exhibit at Thalam,Bangalore

Going forward we are not in a rush to be after commercial success or funding. This year the next things in line would be 1) Building effective website 2) Building a pool of say 6-8 photographers: we have 4 right now; and then focus on them. 3) Conducting photography workshops in India which are worth the buck 4) Build our processes. Our focus will be on improving systems. We really mean going down to the very detail of work flow. Internally improve decision making and information flow between the team, and have clarity of interactions with outside world. Refining our pedagogy of workshops, having a 360 degree feedback form for mentors, responding via digital media and keeping a track of mentored students from workshop will be of importance….

image copyright © Samyukta Lakshmi

So far so good…the journey is the destination.that’s cool

HCC@Delhi Chapter

Ravi Shankar +George Harrison: Collaborations

It is an amazing connect of divine music, photography and travel with a purpose. Though like many we are not religious, but there’s definitely a spiritual connect and so when we head to the mountains it somehow feels easier. Did some research to find more origins of this beautiful chant . and could n’t keep thinking…

What it must be like to travel across in India through the Ganges in the mountains . And what it must be to work alongside two masters :Ravi Shankar & George Harrison . These few images must only tell a little. Love the cover image . Great picture portraits. Subtle ,touching and taken with thought without any hurry .

All pictures © their respective photographers.

In case if anyone ‘s interested in the chant here it is