Cynthia Rodrigues

B. G. Dwarkanath believes the camera can make people see the world, rather than just look at it

"You press the button and we do the rest." Only an amateur would be taken in by such a claim made by a camera manufacturer. B. G. Dwarakanath, vice president and business head, Precision Engineering Division, Titan Industries, and a photography enthusiast, knows that there is more to photography than the mere pressing of a button. He believes that a good photograph is a composite of a good subject, good lighting and composition coupled with the right equipment and the skill of the man behind the camera.

Winner of the second prize in the freestyle colour category of the Shutterbug 2005 photography competition held recently for Tata employees, Mr Dwarakanath believes the camera is an instrument that opens people's eyes and makes them see the world. A self-taught photographer, Mr Dwarakanath honed his craft almost completely by playing around with the camera and discovering its capabilities. His long association with noted photographers also helped him gain the vision and perspective that was showcased in his stunning award-winning picture of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Mr Dwarakanath says, "This is where benchmarking helps. I used to attend exhibitions and meet photographers. I developed a friendship with great photographers like Rajgopal and Sundaram (pictorial photography), as well as Srinivas, Satish, Perumal and Hanumanth Rao (nature photography)." He also attended industrial photography sessions to add to his knowledge of the craft. Later, the young engineering student joined the Bangalore-based Youth Photography Society and the Bangalore Photography Society, which offered him additional opportunities to befriend photographers. "I studied the kind of pictures they took, and the type of lighting and equipment they used. I also read a lot of books," he says.

There were other avenues through which Mr Dwarakanath added to his knowledge. He says, "I used to repair clocks and cameras. Out of curiosity, I had tinkered with several of them. This brought me in touch with a lot of leading professional photographers who were using high-end equipment. If there was a mechanical problem or fungus on the lens, they would bring the cameras to me for rectification." It was a hobby that made him familiar with the micro-precision engineering industry, paving the way for a career in the field.

His first camera was a simple rangefinder Yashica, borrowed from a cousin, and the first shots he took were at a wedding. Over a period of 20 years, Mr Dwarakanath helped preserve the wedding memories of nearly 800 couples, of all religions and castes. "I used to borrow a camera and flash gun and cover the weddings. That is how I picked up the skill," he says.

In those days, it was tough to be a photographer. Mr Dwarakanath set up a full-fledged darkroom in his house, even though it was expensive to maintain. He says, "I used to develop and print my pictures myself, so that I could put the vision in my mind into the picture." This was especially important for industrial photography where, he explains, "You have to set up a large number of lights because everything must be clear and sharp — from a distance of one foot to 100 feet. Colours must be true to the original. The lighting should be uniform. Achieving such a balance is a challenge."

Over the years, Mr Dwarakanath has done many pictures for Titan. A Titan employee since its inception, he has had the opportunity to shoot pictures during various stages of the company's growth. One of his most notable pictures is one of JRD Tata, shot at the inauguration of the Titan factory at Hosur. After Mr Tata cut the tape, some physically challenged people standing nearby did a namaskar to him and Mr Tata reciprocated their gesture. That expression, captured by Mr Dwarakanath, has remained a hidden treasure, seen only by a few people in Titan.

"What I liked in the picture," says Mr Dwarakanath, "was the humility in JRD's face and the expression in his eyes. He seemed to be saying, this is my dedication to the Tata Group and the country." The picture was unveiled at the Business Excellence Convention held in Goa recently. "I thought the convention was the right occasion," he says, "as TBEM started with the JRD QV movement."

Over the years, Mr Dwarakanath has shot a variety of pictures, ranging from nature shots and portraits to pictorial and industrial shots. One Mr Dwarakanath innovation is the multiple exposure shot of the Eiffel Tower. "It took me four hours to make one single picture. A single film was exposed five times at regular intervals, the last one being a long exposure of 20 seconds. The challenge was to expose the same frame of the film without moving either the film or the camera, even by fractions."

Mr Dwarakanath had shot a similar picture in college. It showed a bowler in action, against a black background on a well-lit stage. The pictures were shot using a special camera of Mr Dwarakanath's own devising. He explains, "In a normal mechanical shutter camera, when you click, the shutter opens once for a very brief period — say, 1/125th of a second — and then closes. But I wanted it to open and close more than once, as the bowler moved. So I motorised the shutter, making it open and close five times a second, with an option to make it nine."

This enabled Mr Dwarakanath to take wonderful pictures. Yet he asserts the supremacy of the photographer's skill over the quality of the equipment in making a good picture. To Mr Dwarakanath, the camera is just a tool. The responsibility of creating a beautiful picture, he believes, rests with the photographer. Having great depth of feeling is far more important than having a great depth of field.

"I prefer colour," he says, "because it offers scope for storytelling and reality and adds to the mood. But for shooting portraits, I use black and white. I believe that a photographer must be very lucky in order to be in the right place at the right time, plus have the right lighting and the right image. Above all, he must have the ability to see details and imagine the picture in his mind." As noted American filmmaker Orson Welles said, "A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet." It is a lesson that Mr Dwarakanath has learnt by heart.

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Uploaded on March 29, 2006