Rajat Ghosh, one of the pioneers in the field of infrared photography, delivered a lecture on the ' Innovative mind' at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences on 4th August, 2007. This lecture was a part of the Life and Times Lecture Series , which is a unique initiative of the Centre for Social and Organisational Leadership (C SOL) , TISS, conceptualized as a journey into the cognitive activities of meaning generation and action-orientation. Ghosh is a San Francisco and Mumbai-based photographer, specializing in conceptual imagery and people/celebrity photography. His clientele includes Coca Cola, Wrangler, Eureka Forbes and McDowell's . He regularly works for media and advertising agencies like Lowe Lintas, JWT, Philips Group and does short editorial assignments for international magazines like Cosmopolitan, Forbes, PC Games, etc. He has also been actively involved in the publicity of Bollywood successes like Devdas and Company.
Ghosh kept the audience riveted as he talked about the journey of his life, starting with the leap of faith he took when he enrolled for his Master's in Fine Arts in the US, paying a pricey $100,000 for the course. Having had upped the ante so high, he knew he had to give it his all - technique alone wasn't going to suffice - he realized it's something about the photographer's vision and passion that reflects in a picture and makes it special. He immediately set out on his own after getting his degree, again breaking out of the norm of first assisting a senior photographer for some time. Realizing early on, the importance of doing 'different' work, in order to get more visibility with the agencies, he started picking up burning issues from the newspapers as themes for his images. Suddenly, the industry began appreciating the refreshing spontaneity in his work and there has been no looking back since.
The importance Ghosh attaches to innovation was evident throughout his address, particularly so in the concept of infrared photography that he pioneered. Instead of canning landscape shots only in the early mornings and late afternoons, he found a way of putting the rest of the day to use - he captured the infra red rays emanating from foliage when the trees have absorbed heat from the atmosphere, under the noon sun. The result was soothingly ethereal images that soon became the rage in boardrooms across the world.
Ghosh took the audience through a series of innovatively shot images, which the audience felt were very 'daring and different'. Each one of his pictures mirrored the moment in all its untouched impulsiveness. It was wonderful to see how well his work was stamped with emotional undercurrents.
The audience that comprised of students from varied fields, such as, human resources management, social work, development studies and health administration and professionals from several disciplines of management not only appreciated the innovative pictures on display but also showed equal enthusiasm in making the session interactive.
Ghosh kept the audience riveted as he talked about the journey of his life, starting with the leap of faith he took when he enrolled for his Master's in Fine Arts in the US, paying a pricey $100,000 for the course. Having had upped the ante so high, he knew he had to give it his all - technique alone wasn't going to suffice - he realized it's something about the photographer's vision and passion that reflects in a picture and makes it special. He immediately set out on his own after getting his degree, again breaking out of the norm of first assisting a senior photographer for some time. Realizing early on, the importance of doing 'different' work, in order to get more visibility with the agencies, he started picking up burning issues from the newspapers as themes for his images. Suddenly, the industry began appreciating the refreshing spontaneity in his work and there has been no looking back since.
The importance Ghosh attaches to innovation was evident throughout his address, particularly so in the concept of infrared photography that he pioneered. Instead of canning landscape shots only in the early mornings and late afternoons, he found a way of putting the rest of the day to use - he captured the infra red rays emanating from foliage when the trees have absorbed heat from the atmosphere, under the noon sun. The result was soothingly ethereal images that soon became the rage in boardrooms across the world.
Ghosh took the audience through a series of innovatively shot images, which the audience felt were very 'daring and different'. Each one of his pictures mirrored the moment in all its untouched impulsiveness. It was wonderful to see how well his work was stamped with emotional undercurrents.
The audience that comprised of students from varied fields, such as, human resources management, social work, development studies and health administration and professionals from several disciplines of management not only appreciated the innovative pictures on display but also showed equal enthusiasm in making the session interactive.
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