Dr Ashutosh Jana: The image maker
Dr Ashutosh Jana, whose photographs were viewed by people at the recent 6th Kolkata Photo Festival, believes that ‘modern technology has made photography simple and easy’.
“Modern technology has made photography simple and easy. The automatic camera of today may enable anyone to take excellent pictures, but we must remember that a person with electric rock drills cannot replace the skilled sculptor with a hammer and a chisel. It is the man behind the viewfinder who commands and the camera obeys. It is the human brain that sees a subject or a landscape, composes it in the viewfinder and presses the shutter to record the moment as an image. This image can be made more attractive by the photographer by using his skills and vision to produce a final print for the viewer to appreciate. In the past, we toiled in the dark room with messy chemicals to produce a bromide print of our liking. This has been largely replaced by the lightroom techniques which produce similar, if not better, results. Whatever the method, it is the photographer who makes the picture, not just takes it,” he said.
He added, “In this collection, I have selected photographs taken with old analogue and modern digital cameras. Some pictures were finished personally in the dark room, while others were given their final look in the light room.”
Hailing from a remote village in the Midnapore district of West Bengal, Dr Ashutosh Jana never attended any photography school or rather had no time for such classes due to his medical studies and commitments. All his photographic knowledge was gathered from foreign photography magazines and books which he used to buy with his pocket money during his student life.
