Better Photography December 2016 VOLUME 20 • ISSUE 7 • DECEMBER 2016
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
EDITORIAL The Meandering Route “It slows you ...where my aim is to not have one. Quieten the mind so that it whispers down and yet inconsequentially in the midst of that reverie. Nothing more but pleasant communion with the road. The crowds swirl past, as though I do not you speed up exist. They don’t exist either. Just a form here, a movement there. because you see Raucous laughter. Faces, drenched in the late November afternoon so much more.” sunlight. Bicycles glide slowly into the frame. A goat thoughtfully chews on watermelon peels by my knee. Things happen in a coordinated dance, a ballet where nothing is in control but everything really is. Who am I now? There’s no identity anymore. I’m free. Not everyone is, though. Tacked inescapably to the banyan tree, a faceless colour-streaked rain-damaged God watches on with infinite patience. One more monsoon, and he would be free too. A few missed moments stick around, and then fade. Once in a rare while, I manage to pluck one and save it from oblivion, hopefully just as I saw it. How the hours roll away! A delicious, dull ache in the feet finds them ambling over to Cafe Hindustan. The tiny, rundown, hole-in-the-wall eatery behind a line of parked taxis looks exactly as it has, for the last three years. “Do Suleimani chai, shakkar kum, nimbu daalke”, yells the owner at a window connecting to the sooty kitchen. And then asks me about my thoughts on The Potato Eaters. He introduces me to Edvard Munch, I introduce him to Frida Kahlo. “It’s Mun-kh, not Munch,” he corrects my pronunciation. We talk lighting. He made me look at more paintings than any gallerist. Odd place to discover great conversation like that. Behind the kitchen is a door that opens to an aquamarine green wall. A red bicycle leans against it. It has been around in exactly the same position for a while now. The cook at the kitchen window leans out for yet another portrait. 4 I remind myself that I need to get back to work with sending this issue to the press. The greatest joy of photography is that it lets you escape, away from yourself and into yourself at the same time. It slows you down and yet you speed up because you see so much more. There is no focus and there shouldn’t be, but so many things inexorably become clear and sharp. When you meander, you let yourself discover. The type of photography you do does not change anything. The streets may differ, the path remains the same. K Madhavan Pillai [email protected] Untitled, Alabama, 1956 by Gordon Parks A magazine left behind in a dining car by a patron, where a restless, 25-year- old Gordon Parks was waiting tables, turned his attention towards photography as a way to both make a living and, possibly, make a statement of his times. “I chose the camera as a weapon against all the things I dislike about America—poverty, racism, discrimination,” he said. To read more about Gordon Parks and his will to never give up or give in— Photograph by Gordon Parks. Parks. Gordon by Photograph Foundation Parks courtesy of The Gordon Copyright Turn to page 94 BETTER PHOTOGRAPHY DECEMBER 2016 VOLUME 20 • ISSUE 7 • DECEMBER 2016 CEO-NEWS AND GROUP EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Chief Human Resources Officer, Network18 GET PUBLISHED IN BETTER PHOTOGRAPHY Rahul Joshi Girish Naik Participate in online contests, share your best tips and techniques to get your work noticed. Follow EVP-Human Reasources these simple guidelines: EDITORIAL For Your Pictures, Reader’s Gallery and Reader’s Tip: Chief Editor Sanjeev Kumar Singh Visit http://betterphotography.in/contests and K Madhavan Pillai register yourself on the website NEWSSTAND & SUBSCRIPTIONS Participate in the relavant contests on the page. Deputy Editor-Technical There will always be a contest open for you to take Head-Circulation & Subscription Shridhar Kunte part in! Kripanand S For Reader’s Gallery contests, make sure the Assistant Editor images have been made using a cellphone Raj Lalwani For Reader’s Tip and Your Pictures contests, WEST: Mumbai: Dinesh Devadiga, Laxman include a 100-word note on how and why you shot Features Writers NORTH: Delhi: Kamal Bisht, Kamakhya Pandey the image Conchita Fernandes Winners of all the contests get featured on our EAST: Kolkata: Debraj Sur website and can be featured in the magazine too. Natasha Desai SOUTH: Chennai/Hyderabad: Karunanithi, Naveen They will also receive special prizes! Sakshi Parikh Send in a synopsis, with low-resolution images for viewing, to contribute articles to the Newsstand Accounts Senior Editor–Online following sections: Sanjay Yalavatti Anant Athavale, Rahul Mankar On Assignment, Step-by-Step, Photofeature, Tips & Tricks, Shooting Technique, History, Story Behind the Picture DESIGN & PRODUCTION Subscription Team Get in Touch with us: To have your images reviewed by our panel of experts: Assistant Art Director Kamlesh Mathakar, Vaibhav Ghavale: 9324490187 [email protected] Santosh D Kamble To showcase your best photographs: Mahesh A Jadhav Logistics [email protected] Anant Shirke To contribute articles and for questions MARKETING & SALES on photography: [email protected] For your suggestions, appreciation and criticism 6 Vice President Sales & Marketing NEWSSTAND & SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES on the magazine: [email protected] Amit Seth For newsstand and trade queries, please write to at [email protected] Views and opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily National Sales Head those of Network18 Media & Investments Ltd (Network18)*, its publisher For any subscription queries, please write to Vaibhav and/or editors. We at Network18 do our best to verify the information Badri Narayan: 9845045008 published but do not take any responsibility for the absolute accuracy at [email protected] of the information. Network18 does not accept the responsibility for any investment or other decision taken by readers on the basis of information North Customercare No-33634760 | 4562 provided herein. Network18 does not take responsibility for returning Harshvardhan Verma: 9899555090 unsolicited material sent without due postal stamps for return postage. No part of this magazine can be reproduced without the prior written Rajat Chauhan: 9868103422 To subscribe to Better Photography online, permission of the publisher. Network18 reserves the right to use the information published herein in any manner whatsoever. visit http://eshop.infomedia18.in West Published and Printed by Amit Seth on behalf of Network18 Rekha Billava: 9819002934 ADVERTISING SERVICES Media & Investments Ltd. Editor: K Madhavan Pillai Printed Sales Support at Indigo Press (India) Pvt. Ltd., Plot # 1 C/716, Off Dadoji For advertising and sales queries, please write to Konddeo Cross Road Between Sussex & Retiwala Indl., Estate, Sagar Salunkhe [email protected] Byculla, Mumbai - 400027, & published at Network 18 Media Abhijit Bhoir [email protected] & Investments Ltd., Empire Complex, 1st Floor, 414, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai - 400013. Asst. Manager Marketing Akshaya Jadhav HEAD OFFICE Better Photography is registered with the Registrar of Network18 Media & Investments Ltd, Newspapers of India under No. 69122. Network18 does not FINANCE take any responsibility for loss or damage incurred or suffered Sandeep Mantri “One Indiabulls Centre” Unit No. 501, 5th floor, by any subscriber of this magazine as a result of his/her accepting any invitation/offer published in this edition. Printing Manager Tower-I Jupiter Textile Mills, Senapati Bapat Marg, Elphinstone Road, Mumbai-400 016, * Ownership of this magazine stands transferred from Infomedia18 Limited Dnyaneshwar Goythale (Infomedia18) to Network18 Media & Investments Limited (Network18) Maharashtra, India. in pursuance of the scheme of arrangement between Network18 and Production Team Infomedia18 and their respective shareholders and creditors, as approved by the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi and the necessary approval of Ministry Ravikumar Potdar, Ravi Salian Board Line-3363 4400 of Information and Broadcasting is being obtained. BETTER PHOTOGRAPHY DECEMBER 2016 December 2016 68 78 SnapShots GearGuide CellphonePhotography Industry Voice TEST TEST 22 Paul Burnett– Principal 28 Sigma 50–100mm f/1.8 40 Apple iPhone 7 Plus APAC Evangelist, Adobe DC HSM Art The only camera you’ll Creative Cloud First medium telephoto ever need? lens for APS-C with f/1.8 Look Who’s Shooting 24 Saumya Khandelwal Zeiss Milvus 15mm f/2.8 Moto Z Play & 30 A beautifully designed 44 Hasselblad True Zoom ON THE COVER premium MF ultra wide The ultimate GREAT MASTERS: GORDON PARKS THE AFRICAN PORTRAITS: STORIES OF RACISM IN INDIA power couple TESTED: 8PGIPHONE SUPPLEMENT 7 PLUS, MOTO ON PANASONIC Z HASSELBLAD 4 December 2016 • Rs. 150 INSIDE (Total 148 pages + 8pg supplement) BETTER PHOTOGRAPHY K , www.betterphotography.in Asus ZenFone 3 GREAT MASTERS: PRABUDDHA DASGUPTA • GREAT MASTERS: GORDON PARKS • PREVIEW: SERENDIPITY 2016 • TESTED: GORDON PARKS MASTERS: • GREAT PRABUDDHA DASGUPTA MASTERS: GREAT 48 Feature-packed phone in a premium body INSIDE THIS ISSUE Prabuddha Dasgupta Gordon Parks Mahesh Shantaram Matthew Wylie MICRO TEST Kenko REAL PRO 0.65x Alex Fernandes IcONIc WORKS lillian Bassman, Vanguard The 50 Wide/Macro Lens cecil Beaton, 34 Swapan Parekh Toni Frissell Heralder 51T The view of a whole A cleverly designed bag new world EXPLORING STORIES THAT PORTRAY on four wheels IPHONE THE EDGE 7 l P US V O l. 20 • N OF FAITH Powerful works from history &