| World Photography day celebrations | |||||||||||||||||||
| Congratulations
to all the winners.... It was indeed a great show and in the end we
were all very happy and content. Special thanx to Hemant and Munish for
making it such a success. Last night was a special one with two giants
(Mr Raghu rai and Mr. Jatin Das) sharing their experiences and view
with us. For me personally , it was a great learning experience. I gave these 5 days all that i could, be it time, energy or photography... People appreciated my work.. and praised me on a lot of occasions. To me that was my award. i was not there to sell the art but when people started showing interests in buying, we all got excited and till the last day, kept hoping to attract more and more people to our exhibition. This exhibition also gave me a chance to make better friens and know some of the finest people from our Academy. Got to know Atul Amit, Sunny, Mr. TV, Mel and Vinay more closely. Neha and Puneet on the other hand were always close and a great support. With Amit's Constant support and Atul's humor, I had a great time @ IHC. Sunny's shots were a great inspiration. All in all it was an awesome experience... I would be lying if i'll say i am not missing all the fun we used to have there,,, pulling each other legs, having those rolls together.... it was a great fun.. i would not stress it any further.. ... just wanna say that i hope we get together again soon and plan our next event soon... Thanx sooo much all of u .. :) Akshay Gupta -------------- | About the exhibition About the Participants Press visitors book/reviews exhibited photographs behind the scenes At the exhibition lighting of the lamp Panel Discussion contest winners Quotes Party time Art prints for sale | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hi All, Finally relaxing after a couple of really really hectic weeks - thought I should share my personal thoughts and feelings (like Xa said, I too got to know everyone better). I'm a blunt (and not very diplomatic) person - so I'll say it as I see it - This is straight from the heart - no offence intended : Firstly, Congratulations to all the winners and participants - great show with a great finale. We all finally did it - much better than anything I had hoped for - despite all the hiccups. Great team-work by all. Thanks to some people - they know who they are ;-) - for their very kind calls / sms's / emails - much appreciated. A Special Thanks to : - Munish - for overall co-ordination and direction. Excellent job ! - Atul - for printing everyone's pics (and photoshopping them, where required) - great work ! - and all choices made by you re cropping / enhancement were excellent and in the best interest of the exhibition (regardless of what anyone may say or feel). - Neha - for all graphic design of invites / poster / etc. - and general encouragement to all. - Amit - for his much needed experience from previous exhibitions @ IHC - Sunny - for co-ordination with posters / Press / PR / etc. - Akshay / Mel / NTV / Prashant / Puneet / Vinay - for general co-ordination, manning the exhibition for the 5 days and all the various miscellaneous work that may seem small but is something that we cant do without. Maybe I'm out of line here but would like to offer some uncalled-for advise / comments generally : @ Munish : Please try to be a little less democratic in your leadership :-) @ Atul : Keep going - and do what you think is right - and don't give a damn what anyone says. @ All - Any person who does some work delegated to him by the team is often required to make instant decisions - a few of them are "likely" to be wrong (or could have been better). Please remember that they were done with all good intentions - even if they were wrong. After all - the best way to make No mistakes is to do No work :-) So Neha didn't mis-spell anyone's name intentionally, I didn't edit out a paragraph of text intentionally, Atul didn't take a photo-shopping or printing decision intentionally, Munish didn't decide to hang someone's pic on a less visible wall intentionally, and so on ...... Guys - Shit Happens !!! - So please see what all went right - rather than dwell on what few things went wrong :-) Agree a lot with Xa in his comments above : - The finale night was special with two giants (Raghu Rai & Jatin Das) - my opinion of Raghu has gone up greatly - not only is he a great photographer but he is also very articulate and has a wonderful sense of humour. I pity one person who - on FB - felt it was a mockery - probably lacks the intelligence - or the sense of humour - or both. - Was great to see Munish up there with Raghu - on the same platform. Way to go !!! - Munish also put up some very good points - sometimes its what you say that's more important than how much you say !! :-) Specially liked the distinction you gave on photo-shopping as photo enhancement and not photo manipulation. - Appreciation does mean the most to us all - and we all got it in equal measure from the visitors. Photography - like paintings - are subjective and different people like different styles - and our exhibition had a lot of different styles. The good part is that NO one went away from the exhibition "not liking anything". - Congratulations to all who registered a sale - what a high. Always nice to see someone shelling out hard cash for your hard work :-) - Sorry I couldn't spend more time @ the venue on the 5 days and get to know you people even better. I was busy with the 21st event and had to put in extra time - making up for the 9 missing IIID participants :-) - Was surprised to win 1st prize - I think secretly, every one of us hopes to win (and I confess, I did too) but never thought it would actually happen. Being the very first exhibition / competition, I would have been happy with the participation certificate also. Thanks to Raghu & Jatin for having "a momentary lapse of reason" :-) - have heard "some" whispers that my prize was rigged - don't look so shocked !! no one's watching :-) - am so very glad that Munish was with me when Raghu & Jatin made their mistake. Thanks to Munish for truthfully answering their questions re my pic - before they gave the prize. Sorry that I (along with Munish) was around the judges when they were doing the walk-around - but I was also the organiser (in addition to being a participant) - like Lipika Lighting the Lamp in her capacity as Chairperson of IIID (in addition to being a participant). The whispers and the innuendo sucks - big time - but I'm used to it now (have been through the same when I won the first of my Interior Design awards too - many years ago). - the bad part of being on the Managing Committee of IIID and therefore the chief organizer & "chaprasi" for this Event meant that I was screwed (pardon the French - sorry Mel, not you) even before i started. If I lost, I lost - and if i won, I still lost !! :-) - And anyway - the prize doesn't mean that my pic was the best. My personal choice would have been : 1. Sunny (Above All) 2. Puneet (Jai Ho) 3. Neha (Moving @ the Speed of Life) 4. Shalini (The Young and the Old) 5. Mine :-) @ Sagarika / Rohit : have set a benchmark for Exhibition 2 - all the best !!! Please learn from our mistakes :-) Once again : this was straight from the heart - no offence intended. If you heard anything - it was only your conscience :-) Best wishes, Hemant | |||||||||||||||||||
| Thanks hemant, for summing up everything. not much is left for me to say except a big thanks to all of us. some who did not win a prize or did not sell a picture do have a lot of encouragement and appreciation in the form of words in the visitors book!! Not winning or not selling certainly does not mean that the other photographs were less significant in any way. Every piece of work was distinct. NTv and Prashant are no doubt in a class of their own. And it goes without saying that we all love their work! so did the visitors at the gallery. (i was almost always there) @prashant- I am a big fan of your style of photography! @all- benchmark is set! only way to go is up! @and all- don't take the success to your head. It is only the start. expectations will be higher from all of us. Being consistant in our work is the most important thing to rise. Munish | |||||||||||||||||||
| we have this river of dreams in our hearts, leaving impressions that will always remain, no matter what, do not let the darkness unleash itself upon us, lets not make heavy water (read weather) of this, it was an effort that was worth appreciating by one and all, an achievement by everybody associated in any way, lets not be coy and rise above all, lets use this oppurtunity to make our own script, after all there is heaven on earth, and its in our hearts.... so lets enjoy a drink on the rocks and finally last but not the least... JAI HO....... Atul Aggarwal | |||||||||||||||||||
| @ Munish : Totally in agreement with you. - A big thanks from all of us - to all of us !! As I said - great Team-work. - Must share the visitors' book comments with all of us - they mean more that all the prizes and the sales. - My list of "my" best 5 does not mean that the other 15 are any less. NTV already knows the high regard I hold him in - and so does Atul. Akshay's smoke series is wow - Amit is very good too (though I felt he didn't put up his best work here - his last exhibition was better, but he told me didn't want to repeat himself) - Mel's work, specially with the kids in BW, is great - Prashant is outstanding, specially Janeyu - and Vinay's Ladakh pics (specially the birds that Atul & I selected for the large print) are the best from that trip. But art (including photographs) are subjective - that was just my personal selection - once again, no offence intended to the other 15 :-) - Just wanted to introspect and dwell on the past so that the same mistakes are not repeated again. Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it. @ Atul : We'll make a poet of you, after all :-) Can I conclude with one of my titles : Nothing (more) to say :-) Hemant | |||||||||||||||||||
| And
one thing i forgot to mention- many a times i was almost in tears when
people would talk so highly about all the photographs and the
photographers as i showed them around. It was indeed blissful. And I
was proud of each one of you. may we have many more such proud momments
in life. Munish | |||||||||||||||||||
| Hemant
uv already said everyhting tat i cud feel or say!! :) so i guess theres
nothing to add but i did leave a lil note on fb.. which i think i shudv
left here.. so tat amit n vinay can read as i gues they arent on fb...
so here it is AGAIN.. :P hi guys, i just wanted to congratulate all of u.. for puttin up such a gr8 show! i think these 5 days were super fun along with a gr8 learning exp 4 all of us! writing a short mail to tell u all.. tat today felt very boring.. as i really missed bein at the exhibition with all of u.. n pullin one anothers leg.. n just havn a blast! hoping to have our CONTI-party REAL soon... (ATUL HOPE UR LISTENING) :P :P we WILL do sumthing on teh 4th wen mel's bak but lets catch up once b4 tat just to celebrate our gr8 show n not feel so left out ;) !! i think it was a SUPERB show for our 1st.. n dint seem like a first at all.. I'd also like to give my special thnx 2 Munish sir, for finally making it happen... and also Hemant for his gr8 support.. he practically handled everything (n really well) :)... n im sure atul must b thinking y his name is not here.. so ok..il jus slitely massage ur ego!! u did a gr8 job with the prints , THANKS to me being around!!! :P :P :P GUYSss lets meet up soon... ps- sir shalini maam's really sweet! spent so much tym with her 4 the 1st tym.. earlier i dint think she wud smile much honestly.. was kinda scared of her .. but not anymore :) :) :) Gr8 goin guys.. all the best 4 everything in future... Bombay here we COMEEEEEEEEEEEE :) cheers! Neha im glad tat we got a chance to interact with one another which we dont get to do otherwise... n sir ur rite in sayin tat the only way to go is UP... :) n yeah one thing tat is worth mentioning is tat - whoever came LOVED all our wrk.. more so.. (i feel) coz we dint have A PARTICULAR theme which wud mean similar shots.. here we had an amazing variety right from abstracts to kids to nature n so on... Theres so much tat i wanna say n write but i gues u all wil jus get bored of readin it.. but hemant n every1 else have pretty much summed it all! :) n yeah ATUL i dint know abt ur poetic skills! GOOD going!! cheers 2 all!! :) - Neha | |||||||||||||||||||
| I
am glad to see this new beginning starting at this high a note! I am
glad we sold photographs, we had amazing feedback from people, we had a
lot of footfall in the exhibition.... What I feel the most important output from this whole exercise is that a group of people who are potential competitors or maybe actual competitors in the wild world, came together and saw each other as people who compliment instead of competing! Way to go! I hope the trend continues! I was not there, but heard and read a lot of nice things about the work that was on display (not a single photograph in this thread from the exhibition though; I am disappointed about that though) It is very encouraging for masters like Hemant and Munish to notice what I do and appreciate it. Sunny, Thank you so much for working with me to get the files in time and helping my parents out when they were at IHC. I owe you one! Thank you Munish for providing this opportunity and platform to participate even though I am not yet a formal member of the academy. In my heart, I am :) Looking forward to many such shows in the future !!! Cheers, Prashant | |||||||||||||||||||