The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Window to the world around us

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 30, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Window to the world around us

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: Photographs are moments frozen in time. But news photography is not just that. It serves as window to the world around us. Those in doubt about this should drop in at the Durbar Hall Art Gallery.

Portfolio 2006 is a visual presentation of photo and electronic journalists. The show, organised by Kochi Photojournalists' Forum, has now become an annual event. It also acts as recap of main events that happened during this year — both painful reminders of tragedies and pleasant moments, mediapersons' favourite haunt either way.

But the show has not been highlighted correctly, as reactions recorded in the visitor's book show. Many had come, expecting outstanding photographs. One of the visitors noted that many of the photographers had concentrated on the theme and not in the frame as such. That is precisely what makes this exhibition different, and special.

It takes a newsperson's eye to see what one photographer had seen when he captured a girl recovering what little she could from her house in Santo Colony after it was gutted in fire.

Or the image of a rescue worker taking out dead body of one of the victims of the boat accident at Vytilla, as captured by another lensman. There are many pictures depicting police action, but only very few that find a subtle balance of news and composition. The image of a survivor of tsunami attack, a small child sharing a grounded boat with a flock of crows, is another such instance. There are many more.

And there are indeed frames for those who are least bothered about news angle and want more visual aesthetics.

Works by 33 news photographers are displayed at the exhibition. Video clippings by visual journalists will be screened at the Durbar Hall premises in the evenings. The exhibition will be on till December 31.

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