About This Photographer:
Sucheta is an Indian photographer, specializing in photojournalism, after she developed a passion for photographing the problems of human life ever since being a young school student. Ever since, she has worked for an array of Indian Press publications, even starting up her own workshops in her studio for other aspiring photojournalists. I am fascinated by Sucheta's work for many reasons; I like the strong use of colour in the Indian culture, and I also like the variety of human problems she comes across as part of her job. I can take inspiration from these problems and reverse the photographs to form part of my Contrasts personal project.
Why Have I Picked This Photographer?
I have chosen to take a closer look at this photographer in particular because I wanted a photographer of a completely different culture and background to help inspire my own contrasts between different people. I also like that she picks up quite heavily on contrasts in her own work, especially with the use of colours which are so popular within the Indian culture. I also like that she isn't a well established photographer, and all of her photography styles and techniques are quite simple and basic, and will be easily applicable to my own work. It was also interesting to get an insight into what living is like in a country like India, and the similarities I could possibly replicate with British culture in my own work, such as the themes of poverty and child cruelty/labour.
Evaluation:
Like the last picture, this photo focuses on the recurring theme of child workers/slavery/poverty in India. The powerful message embedded from this photo comes from the little girl looking upon the elderly man smoking. Whilst the little girl, clearly very skinny and working hard for a trade is automatically contrasted with and juxtaposed against the crouching, elder man, smoking. This message is quite heart-breaking really, as it suggests the idea that this little girl works hard and still has everything to fight/live for, yet this elder person is literally throwing their life away by smoking. The black and white effect works well here as it builds on the saddening tone, making viewers feel guilty. I like the slightly more zoomed out crop of the picture here as it allows the whole scenario to be captured - it is not just these two people living in poverty, but practically everyone is. I also like how it allows the viewers to pick up on the variety of patterns associated with the Indian culture in the variety of clothing and the different products for sale.
The idea of the Holi festival was actually one of the first things to inspire me to chose Contrasts as a topic for my personal project - I simply love how the different colours pop and stand out from one another. Holi is the name given to the powder that is thrown, but I may just use powder paint when I conduct something very similar. I like the composition of this photo to include the two different faces side-by-side to show the contrast between 1. male and female and 2. the red and blue powders. The tight crop on this photo is effective because it allows us as viewers to first look at the eyes as the main focal point, and then explore around the eyes to see the blends of the different colours. The colours in this image also work really well with the use of a brighter lighting by Sucheta - this brightness seems to illuminate the colours and give the picture an overall glow. I believe this would also work well in darker lighting if the colours where luminous to contrast against a blacker background.
Colour and festivals are a huge part to the Indian culture. I adore the different colours, patterns and textures that are experimented with in this picture, and it shows brilliant contrast with, for example, the British/Christian culture. I simply love the colours used here because of their vibrancy and how well they all contrast with each other - makeup and face-paint is definitely another route I want to look down for my personal project. You could also argue that this person looks quite uncomfortable, not particularly happy, which interestingly contrasts with the person he has been made-out to be through the decoration. I don't particularly like the composition of this photo, for me it's to broad and basic. If I were her I would have cropped the image tighter or zoomed right in to focus on specific parts of the makeup and enhanced the curves to really increase the intensity of the colours. I think that makeup can be a huge opportunity to explore contrasts, like with this photo as an example, in many cultures makeup and paint is used to create alternative 'characters' for people to wear, and these often contrast and contradict the personalities of the people wearing them which could be a very interesting topic to explore.
Despite being a photojournalist, I was quite surprised to see Sucheta use the Multiple Exposure/Multiple Flash technique you would most commonly see used by a commercial photographer, but for this particular photo, I think it looks super effective. This photo came from a portfolio themed around child poverty - looking into how children in India often have to go without food, work long hours and are in danger of contracting certain illnesses. I see contrast in this photo, not only from the use of black and white, but how in England we'd see it as very uncommon for children to be associated with severe illnesses, x-rays etc. yet here in this photo, Sucheta is juxtaposing a young child, which should be full of life and happiness, with an x-ray which could quite easily represent illness, poverty, sadness... death? The use of black and white and the smokey blurred effect adds to the dramatic tone set by the image, giving it all-the-more power to it's story and meaning.
Influence:
So far in my personal project, Sucheta has not influenced any part of my work, but I have made plans for a potential shoot in the future based on her work around the Holi festival, as I find the contrast in the colours really eye-catching and beautiful. Like some of the other photographers I have researched, I find some of her work on the more emotional side all the more captivating, and have also influenced me to look at the contrast of emotions in the future.
Summary:
The majority of other photographers I have looked at are all of a similar culture to my own, they are typically British, American or Australian, and I find that looking at Sucheta's work refreshing as I don't usually look into Asian or African photographers' work as much, but I have enjoyed seeing her colourful and emotional take on life. Sucheta is a rather modern journalist photographer, and I feel I will learn a lot from her based on her w
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