Koushik Sinha Roy

INTRODUCTION

Hello folks. This is Koushik Sinha Roy from Uluberia, a sub divisional town of Howrah district in West Bengal, India. He is professionally a high school teacher and a weekend street photographer who started photography in 2015. His photographs have been exhibited in many International Street Photography Festivals like Miami, San Francisco, Italy, London, Bangkok, Sofia, Athens etc. He was the winner of Leica Fedback Friday Award conducted by APF in 2017 and a Runner up in PhoSofia 2019. He was in the judging panel of The Wall Exhibition in Pafos, Cyprus. He is a member of Little Box collective and the founder of the instagram handle and Flickr pool - ‘lyrical_sp’.

DEFINITION OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHY: Street Photography (for me) is an un-posed momentary drama (storytelling).

TYPOLOGY: In my opinion, Street Photography can be of three types-namely,

a) Silent storytelling

b) Dynamic storytelling

c) Mysterious Storytelling

SILENT STORYTELLING: This type of street photos deal direct with human psyche and thus poetic in nature, sometimes being allegorically insightful. These photos are highly artistic, moody, and lyrical.

DYNAMIC STORYTELLING: Those street images which carry the outer emotional flow of subjects or deals with human expressions when in dynamic engagement of elements in a frame are known as dynamic storytelling.

MYSTERIOUS STORYTELLING: This category of street photos deal with the sense of ambiguity, mystery, noire etc, where question leads to more questions and once in a while images become a psychological thriller.

SPECIALITY: WHY STREET PHOTOGRAPHY?

HUMANITARIAN GROUND: Street Photography allows me (as a photographer) to enter into the realm of public life of people, thereby recording and feeling their psychological drama simultaneously through a delicate visual interaction.

NO CHALLENGE,NO FUN: The difficulty or challenge and the un-posed nature of street photography always draw myself into this photographic genre. The joy and satisfaction of making a good street photo after so many failures is something you cannot express in words.

THERAPY: Street Photography is a therapy to me as it turns introvert people like me to extrovert while shooting.

THE ART OF SEEING:

This genre of photography is such where one needs to study and understand the basic dynamics of its tools like ‘SEEING’. So, what to see? The answer is anything interesting which evokes a feeling or human emotions like laughter, pain, anger, compassion, love etc. The seeing becomes art when one sees the delicate things which normal people tend to avoid. I always believe that the credit must be given to the photographer who sees and percepts a scope of making a different street photo from the mundane daily life. I personally love finding unique connections between nature and people and exploring formations of human interest. Sometimes it’s interesting to do some edgy street stuff based entirely on ‘SEEING’.

ORIGINAL APPROACH:

The beauty of street photography is that it gives me pleasant surprises every time I go out in the street. Being a street photographer, I try to feel and react to those fleeting moments in order to capture them. Capturing decisive moment is possible when feeling and reacting to an unfolding scene happen simultaneously in the mind/brain of a photographer. As you can see, this demands for rigorous practice and life experience. The photographer is in complete meditative state when the shutter is pressed. An original photo is born when a photographer is unable to detach him or her from this meditative state.

MY APPROACH IN THE STREET:

Being a keen observer I likes those little moments in street where my subjects’ psychological drama can be studied through the medium of street photography. Searching for visual lyrics in chaotic public places in India especially in Kolkata gives me immense joy. I am more of an intuitionally drawn towards my subjects and it happened many a times so that now-a-days, it has become a part of my journey during a walk. I am a ‘pause and shoot’ photographer. . I generally don’t wait for a scene to be unfolded for more than 2-3 minutes. It’s just my own style. I walk and when I see or sense something interesting happening or going to happen, I pause and shoot. That’s why I don’t have a pile of contact sheets. Either bulls eye or miss. But of course when get a scope; I take as many shots as possible from different angles so that I can make sure the best shot in my possession.

TIPS FOR NOVICE STREET PHOTOGRAPHERS:

Some tips for novice street photographers-

1. Have faith that you can do it. Street Photography is difficult, accept it. There is no alternative of continuous practice and honesty. Follow those like fundamental principles of street photography.

2. No point in repeating same work, so create your own voice. Dig deep down your psyche and listen to your own melody first and then reflect the very tune (feelings) in your photos.

3. Follow your gut feelings while shooting.

4. Do experiment, it’s the primary way to learn and evolve.

5. Train your eyes to see the oddity in chaos

CONCLUSION:

Street Photography is a feeling of a stolen moment where every elements fall in its place. It can be a drama of an unusual scene or a visual pun or visual questionnaire full of mystery or a piece of abstract formation of life in chaos where photographer’s delicate observational skill and framing matter the most. A street photograph is the psychological bridge between the photographer and the viewer. Those two sides of the bridge connect well when there is a strong visual interaction. Thus it’s a two-way story.