Will they ever see what happened to that photograph? I stumble up on this question while compiling my work from Sundarban. People open their lives to photojournalists, perhaps unknowingly, but they do. A person walks in to their living space with a camera, and collect images. Now those persons in the images, are no longer individual persons, they are subjects.
Subjects, whom are to be studied and analyzed, much like a lab rat. And, the photographer turns into the mad scientist. If it is a good photo, it might induce interest among people, and the experiment will be considered successful. But, a few years later, the results of such experiments become normality of society, much like the laws of gravity. Today, we don’t see scientists trying to set the fundamental laws of gravity like Isaac Newton. It is testified and done. Similar is the life of a photograph. The craft demand new and unique experiments. And, photographers constantly indulge it that but, what about the subject?
It has become a ritual for photographers to show the image to the subject. But the question is, is that the end result of that image? I suppose not. A photograph has a life of its own, a personality of its own, and a voice of its own. Thanks to technological advancements, the photographs outlive the person or situation captured, to a much longer extent now. And, it keeps on initiating a dialogue with its viewers. Now all that matters is the craft of the photographer, and response of the viewer. The individual, who opened his or her life for the photo, is only a virtual representation of something else. A symbol, who’s authenticity relies on interpretational abilities of viewers, and narrative abilities of the photographer.
And, it seems that symbols don’t get to see, what happens to them in the longer run. But, how important is it for the subject to know that? If a photographer takes your photo, would you want to know how far the conversation reached with the viewers, and in which direction?
A tribal family at the entrance of their Mud House in Sundarban region.