Hyderabad, August 31: Using only two cameras through the course of a single day, a motley bunch of city professionals managed to shoot a bit over 2,000 portraits of Hyderabadi denizens.
The feat, considered to be a first in the country was spearheaded by techie-turned photography enthusiast Kishore Nagaragiri, who got together an ensemble of associates to complete the project.
Having started an online group of city-based photography enthusiasts four years back, the 28-year-old designer for a software company claims to be inspired by the weekend photography walks conducted in cities abroad.
Upon inquiring about the reason behind the project, Kishore said that, “it started off quite simply as an attempt to capture the essence of the city through its people, and the we thought that shooting a 1,000 portraits of people on the streets would be a challenge and an opportunity to hone our photographic skills.” Likewise, a fine Sunday morning earlier this month saw the group of techies, businessmen, students and service professionals assemble at strategic points in the city, following which, they got down to the business of shooting.
While the informal group had earlier conducted selfstyled ‘photography walks’ on weekends, a project of such a magnitude required a great deal of planning and homewo rk , e x p l a i n s Kishore.
And the result? From unsuspecting traffic policemen to roadside food vendors, shy college girls to celebrities on the run, the myriad flavours of the city streets would get featured on a one-day exhibition in the city.
While speed was of essence to completing the day-long project, the cumulative crew of around 20 amateur photographers managed to convince some 2,000-odd people to pose in front of the camera, resulting in a final tally of 1,000 portraits.
As far as funding is concerned, the group members noted that though sponsorship was hard to come by initially, the project has seen a few corporate takers as news about the project spread through word of mouth and online social networking sites. Despite issues of printing costs and a slow uptake, the group announced that it would be holding a one-day exhibition of the complete 1,000 portraits project at the Prasads Imax complex at Necklace Road on August 13.
“Our prime impetus was simple – to make complete strangers smile in the middle of the road,” said a relieved Kishore after the deal to hold an exhibition was finalised, to which he added, saying that “at the end of it all, getting over 2,000 Hyderabadis to smile and share their stories, within the span of a single day was itself a rewarding experience.”
–Agencies–