Sensing that it was time for India to have its own photo festival, photographers Dinesh Khanna and Prashant Panjiar teamed up with Alka Pande to make the plans concrete. And after the necessary baking of ideas, the Delhi Film Festival was born.
Organized in the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, the photo festival was the first of its kind to be organized in India. The festival opened on October 15th 2011 and after receiving thousands of photographers during its successful 14 days long run, it closed on October 28th 2011.
This is from the 'Backdrop' series from Raghu Rai. There were several photographs of this collection displayed here. The expressions and the settings in all these pictures were priceless.
Canon had its stall set up in the Indian Habitat Centre all through the length of the festival. Canon was one of the official sponsors of the event.
As was Sandisk! It was nice to see these stalls there. Very handy in case you run out of memory card or batteries while covering the event.
Canon's tagline "Take your passion to a whole new level" seems appropriate here. The organizers have taken the art of photography to a whole new level here in India by bringing this festival to India.
The amphitheater waiting for the scheduled artist talk. India Habitat Centre with its variety of conference rooms and exhibition places is the ideal venue for such events.
Foreign visitors attending one of the artists talk sessions. These sessions were seen as an opportunity by the artists as well as the audience. Artists got to share their experiences while the audience got to learn from them and also look at some beautiful pictures clicked by these artists.
This was at the commencement of the talk by photographer Sam Harris. On the stage are Sam and Dinesh Khanna. The auditorium was overflowing and as you can see, the audience were everywhere.
Photographer Munem Wasif from Bangladesh. He was the youngest photographers to give a talk that day but his talk was the most entertaining though it did overshoot the time.
Mr. Dinesh Khanna, one of the key persons who conceived and organized this event. This was towards the end of the festival.
There were several exhibitions spread all over the IHC compound. Each exhibition was different, with a unique perspective and the photographs used different techniques.
Even at night, there were enough visitors and good enough lighting arrangements had been made to ensure that visitors enjoy the experience. This the exhibition of the photos by the photographer Mr. Bharat Choudhary.
People from all parts of India and even from international community were there to enjoy the exhibitions and the events. Such events should be organized more often in India to encourage creative career options and to motivate artists.
This was the exhibition "Photographing the Street" that featured photographers such as Angelo Samarawickrema, Arif Mahmood, Aznym Adam, Balazs Gardi, Deshan Tennekoon, Hossein Fatemi, Ibrahim Asneem Adam, Ketaki Sheth, Kevin Bubriski, Muhammaed Muheisen, Munem Wasif, Munshid Mohamed, Nasmia Haroon, NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati, Pablo Bartholomew, Prashant Panjiar, Raghu Rai, Ram Rahman, Ruvin de Silva, Seamus Murphy, Serena Chopra, Shahee Ilyas, Shahidul Alam, Sita Medemba, Stephan Andrews, and Tahir Jamal.
Whenever I go to such events, I find myself wishing that I had more time on my hands to explore more and deeper. And photography itself is a hobby that needs time.
There were several exhibitions of portraits. Portrait photography may look simple but it is actually quite complex. Unless there's something special in expressions or get up, it is very difficult to make art out of it.
There were print exhibitions all around the campus of IHC...
Few exhibitions in Palm court and others in backyard of IHC....
Most of the main activities were during first week but Print exhibitions continued during second week as well !!!
Shining prints from Raghu Rai's Exhibition....
There were some electronic exhibitions as well, although many folks failed to discover it... If discovered, it was difficult to accommodate more than 5 people around the place...
Here the first event completes with grand success and opening lots of doors to progress this art in India !!!
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