"The newspaper lies, the radio lies, the TV lies, the streets, they howl with the truth."

A senior in college and a friend of mine who is the editor of Better Photography in India has this to say about the dying photojournalism in India in newspapers and magazines in particular. How true it is, go through the daily newspapers and magazines in India and they have nothing to offer to a photojournalist on assignment except for some semi nude pictures taken at a high soceity party for front page..read the stuff below...

'Where the Streets Have No Name',

"The newspaper lies, the radio lies, the TV lies, the streets, they howl with the truth."

Someone forwarded this to me a while ago and it has stayed with me since then. I have no clue who wrote it the first time around, but its truth is quite unnerving.

Where has street photography disappeared? The thirst for looking for images that sometimes stare at you and sometimes don’t, and all for their own sake, with no agenda, seems to be a dying art. It is definitely not 'fashionable' anymore —hunting without knowing where your next image is going to come from. The journey, without the destination. Fact is, a great deal of photojournalism found its roots here, on the streets. It is where most of the unedited truth of our society lies. If nothing else, a walk on the streets will sharpen reflexes and awareness to life around us, which can be highly engaging photographically.

But some of you who are possibly interested in a photography that is far from the streets — like glamour or advertising, must be wondering where does walking the streets leave you. Walk on, and you will be surprised to know that every once in a while even the hot shots of glamour or industrial photography take to the streets. It is like a touchstone for most.

So, where does photojournalism in India stand today?

What I see does not make for a pretty picture at all. A great deal of photojournalism one has been seeing in the recent past gives the impression that somewhere along the line, the sacred creed of photojournalists has disappeared. Every once in a while, one does see a spurt of good work and then it dies down (remember, I am referring to work that has appeared in India). If you were to ask me today, that when was the last time I saw a newspaper/magazine image (in India) that made me sit up — I will have to delve far back into my memory. But I do remember days not so long ago, when there would always be an image,that appeared in either a Telegraph or an Indian Express or wherever — a single image which made not just me, but a lot of others sit up. The image elicited discussions and comments. And photojournalism was alive.

But why, why only ‘was’ alive?

Photojournalists could not have suddenly forgotten the language of photography. In fact, there are more visuals being used in Indian publications today than ever before. Photo editors play an essential role in the planning of the magazine or newspaper, which a few years ago was the sole purview of the news editor. All of that has changed, thankfully.

Unfortunately, the price of progress seems too heavy today. One does see a good image every now and then. But it’s getting rare. A great deal of photojournalism that is happening in India is on assignments. Or incident based. It is like waiting for the good Lord to do something earth shattering, so that one can rush out with the camera and do the command performance. I remember when I was a rookie —a senior colleague of mine caught me sitting at my desk waiting for work to happen. He knew that the next planned assignment for me was a few hours away, and he had this to say, “What are you waiting for? A bomb blast in the city, so that you get a ‘page one’ tomorrow?”

I have still not forgotten that rap on my knuckles, though it has been more than 15 years. The words still sting as they did on that day. I try and shoot on the streets whenever possible, but more than that I look out for the work of people who do street photography. The names are few and far between. You see Manish Swarup’s images in the ‘http://www.manishswarup.com'. He has been one of the finest photojournalists in the country for close to two decades, but he still takes out time to shoot images, which are far removed from his daily work. And somewhere, those images, I feel, mend his soul.
-editor@betterphotography.in